THE VICTORY LIry 


Vv. MAHOOD 


DUKE 
UNIVERSITY 
LIBRARY 


= 


Gift of 


Dr. & Mrs. James H. Semans 


THE VICTORY LIFE 


(Specially Adapted for 
New Converts) 


BY 


J. W. MAHOOD, Evancenisr 


Author of 
“THE ART OF SOUL-WINNING,” Etc. 


“*Tn all these things we are more than conquerors 
through Him that loved us”’ 


“Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory 
through our Lord Jesus Christ’’ 


¥ 


CINCINNATI: JENNINGS AND GRAHAM 
NEW YORK: EATON AND MAINS 


Co mg Mather, 


ELIZABETH MAHOOD, 


WHO 
IN OHILDHOOD AND YOUTH 
TURNED MY STEPS TOWARD 
GoD AND HEAVEN; 


AND 
Ex mg Wife, 
MARY MIRIAM MAHOOD, 


WHO SHARES WITH ME 
THE TOILS AND JOYS OF THE 
CHRISTIAN MINISTRY, 
THIS BOOK 
IS LOVINGLY DEDICATED 


AUTHOR'S NOTE. 


Tue New Convert must be given a proper 
viewpoint if he is to live a useful Christian 
life. He must come to see the possibilities in 
this life, and to desire its highest ideals. He 
must learn quickly that victory is possible. 
- The lapse of some into lives of indifference 
and worldliness, so soon after a religious awak- 
ening, is often due to lack of a true conception 
of what the Master expects of them, and of 
what the Christian life really is. 

That the newly awakened soul may be 
helped to live the Victory Life, this volume is 
written. It is arranged in twelve chapters— 
a study for each of twelve weeks following the 
revival. In the weekly Converts’ Class, one 
chapter may be reviewed and discussed, the 
Bible character for the week studied, and the 
memory verses recited. 


THE PLAN 


2 


Week 1. Tue Victoryor Prayer, - - - 17 
Week 2. Tue Vicrory oF PRAIsE, - - ~ 27 
Week 3. Tue Victory or Fairs, - . - 87 


Week 4. Tue Victory orLovre, - - - 46 


Week 5. Tue Victory oF OBEDIENCE, - - 54 
Week 6. Tue Victory or CouRAGE, - - 63 
Week 7. Tue Victory oF ZEAL, - “ - =. 3B 
Week 8. Tue Victory or SetF-SacriFICcE, - 81 
Week 9. Tue Victory or SUFFERING, > - 80 
Week 10. Tue Victory or Purity, - - - 97 


Week 11. Tue Victory or TEMPERANCE, - - 105 


Week 12. Tur Victory or PowER, = - = 112 


FOREWORD. 


Tue Christian Life is the only Victory Life. 
Sooner or later, life from any other standpoint 
means defeat. And who wishes defeat? “Vic- 
tory, or Death!” has been the battle-cry of 
many a patriot; but when Jesus Christ walked 
forth from the tomb in Joseph’s garden, leading 
captivity captive, he had made possible abso- 
lute and eternal victory for every citizen of his 
kingdom. Our victorious Lord has said, “ Lo, 
I am with you alway.” With this assurance, 
we deed not fear the mightiest legions of death 
and hell. Now, with confidence, every child 
of God may shout, “We are more than con- 
querors through him that loved us.” 

The redemptive and saving work of the Son 
of God is perfect. He is “able also to save 
them to the uttermost that come unto God by 
him.” Many professing Christians go stum- 
bling from one defeat to another, instead of 
going from victory to victory. Did we all 
appropriate divine grace and strength, so gen- 
erously provided by the sacrifice of Calvary, 
we might all say, at the sunset of earthly life, 

9 


10 Tuer Victory Lirr. 


“T have fought a good fight; I have kept the 
faith.” 

A good Presbyterian lady, the daughter of a 
minister, wrote this author a note, in which she 
said: “I have long stood on the border, and 
looked over into the Victory Land. Now I 
have come into full possession; I am conscious 
of daily victory through Christ.” 

The new convert must not think of the 
Christian life as a playground, or a picnic. 
Every step of the way will be contested by 
the devil and his legions. We have enlisted 
under Emmanuel’s banner, not for dress-parade, 
but for a mighty warfare; and we shall soon 
discover that 

** Angels our march oppose, 
Who still in strength excel; 
Our secret, sworn, eternal foes, 

Countless, invisible.’’ 
But our glorified Leader has provided an in- 
vincible armor (Eph. vi); and if we but fol- 
low him closely, he will lead us from victory to 
victory until the Crowning Day. 


a 


a 


WEEK 1. 
THE VICTORY OF PRAYER. 


Cuaracter Stupy: Jesus. (Gospel by Luke.) 


Memory Verse: But thou, when thou pray- 
est, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast 
shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in 
secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret 
shall reward thee openly. (Matt. vi, 6.) 


We can never know the privilege of prayer, 

nor the victory of prayer, until we have stud- 
ied the prayer-life of the Son of man. He 
taught his disciples to pray by example as well 
as by precept. On the mountain-side, keeping 
the Morning Watch; in the wilderness, battling 
with the tempter; in the temple, with the 
shadow of the cross on his pathway; in lonely 
Gethsemane, in the throes of his agony; and 
on Calvary, praying for his enemies with ex- 
piring breath, Jesus teaches us to pray. He 
triumphed when he prayed. Somay we. The 
ages prior to the Savior’s coming had recorded 

18 


14 Tue Victory Lirs. 


many victories for prayer. Time would fail to 
tell of Enoch, and Abraham, and Jacob, and 
Elijah, and David, and Daniel. In the Old 
Testament the man of prayer is always the 
man of power, and the man of power, always 
the man of prayer. But Jesus showed us how 
we may all walk with God, and al/ have power 
with God. 

Jesus taught seven great lessons in prayer, 
which every young Christian should learn: 

1. God delights to hear and answer the 
prayers of his children. “If ye then, being 
evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
children, how much more shall your Father 
which is in heaven give good things to them 
that ask him?’ This lesson is emphasized in 
many places in the Bible. 

“The prayer of the upright is his delight.” 

“The eyes of the Lord are upon the right- 
eous, and his ears are open unto their cry.” 

“ And it shall come to pass that, before they 
call, I will answer; and while they are yet 
speaking, I will hear.” 

Having been pardoned and adopted into the 
family of God, no earthly parent is more con- 
cerned for his children than is our Heavenly 
Father for us. 

This lesson has been emphasized again and 


Tur Viorory oF PRAYER. 15 


again in human history. During the last hun- 
dred years there has been no more illustrious 
example of the prayer-life than that of George 
Mueller, of Bristol. This man of God built 
up a great system of orphanages; housed, 
clothed, and fed thousands of children; while 
God, in answer to fervent prayer, always pro- 
vided the means. The work of J. Hudson 
Taylor, of the China Inland Mission, may also 
be studied with profit, if we wish to see how 
God can take care of his own and provide for 
their needs. 

But we have been so faithless and unbeliev- 
ing when our Heavenly Father is more anxious 
to give than we are to receive! In a certain 
home was a little girl of seven, who had been 
dumb from infancy. Her mother was dead, 
and her father, a wealthy business man, was 
unwilling to allow his child to be sent to a 
deaf-and-dumb institution. By a sort of sign- 
language, they understood each other. But it 
became necessary that the father should be 
absent in Europe a whole year. Friends ad- 
vised that the little girl be placed in a home 
for the deaf and dumb; which was done, the 
father thinking she would be taught the sign- 
language, but never dreaming that she would 
be able to speak. The year had passed, and on 


16 Tue Victory Lirs. 


a certain day the child was told that her father 
was coming for her. She stood at the window 
until she saw him coming up the walk. Then 
she ran out and threw herself into his arms, 
and, putting her lips to his ear, whispered, 
“Papa, I love you!” The man was startled, 
and overcome with joy. 

He fell upon the walk, and they carried him 
in. But all day long he laughed and cried be- 
times for joy, as he said, “She has spoken, and 
she says she loves me.” But our Heavenly 
Father loves us as no earthly parent can pos- 
sibly love; and in his Word he tries to make us 
understand his delight when we, who have be- 
come his loving and obedient children, speak 
into his ear our assurances of love and our 
petitions for help. 

2. We are to ask in the name of Jesus. 
“Whatsoever ye shall ask in my name, that 
will I do.” What confidence is this the Savior 
has in us that he should give us the free use of 
his name! The clerk who has been authorized 
by his employer to use his name must have the 
confidence of that employer. But here Jesus 
Christ has given us access to his eternal riches. 

Dr. J. Wilbur Chapman says that after a 
revival campaign in his own church he was 
much worn in body. His official board gave 


Tue Victory oF PRAYER. 17 


him a month’s vacation for recuperation. He 
was about to leave for the Far West when a 
member of his Church called and placed a slip 
of paper in his hand. Dr. Chapman thought 
it a letter of introduction to some friend in the 
West, but to his surprise found a check prop- 
erly signed, with the space for the amount left 
blank. The pastor thanked his friend, but 
said, “Is there not some mistake?” “No,” said 
the gentleman, “you just keep that check, Dr. 
Chapman, and when you need money fill in the 
amount and it will be honored.” Jesus Christ 
has given us access to the riches of heaven by 
the free use of his name. All the infinite re- 
sources of grace and wisdom and glory are at 
our disposal. But the most pitiable thing on 
earth is that there are so many professing 
Christians who are poor and miserable and 
naked, while the Lord has given access to such 
bounty. 

3. We are to ask in faith. “Therefore I say 
unto you, all things whatsoever ye pray and 
ask for, believe that ye receive them and ye 
shall have them.” And what is faith but tak- 
ing God at his word—counting it done. Our 
Heavenly Father would sooner let every star 
fall from heaven than disappoint a soul who 
trusts in him. To absolutely trust God and 

2 


18 Tuer Victory Lire. 


stand upon the promises without a doubt is to 
be invincible. “All things are possible to him 
that believeth.” 

Upon a narrow mountain pathway a traveler 
followed his guide, until they came to where a 
ledge of rock jutted out across their way. The 
guide sprang nimbly around it, but the tray- 
eler hesitated. Then the guide, stooping down 
and putting his hand by the side of the rock, 
said: “Now, stepon my hand, and then around 
on the path.” “I will not do that,” said the 
traveler; your hand might not be able to hold 
me, and I would be dashed to death.” “Never 
mind,” said the guide, “that hand never lost a 
man.” The hand of Jesus Christ never failed 
to rescue and save and keep the man or woman 
who trusts in him. It is ours, then, to believe 
when we pray, and he will not, he can not, 
disappoint us. 

4. We are to take time to prevail with God. 
This lesson is emphasized in Luke xviii, 1-8. 
It had been emphasized many times in the his- 
tory of Israel. Jacob wrestled with the Angel 
of the Covenant at Jabbok’s brook, until the 
break of day, and prevailed. And the Son of 
God left us an example in prevailing prayer 
when on the mountain by night he poured out 
his soul to the Father, and when in Geth- 


Tue Vicrory or PRAYER. 19 


semane he endured the agony, and by prayer 
prevailed. 

That men may now prevail with God has 
been proven again and again in the history of 
the Christian Church. John Knox knew this 
secret, and no wonder the wicked queen feared 
his prayers more than an army. Martin Lu- 
ther spent two hours in prayer each morning, 
and having prevailed with God, feared not the 
whole Roman hierarchy, but could say, “I will 
go to Worms if there be as many devils there 
as there are tiles upon the housetops.” George 
Whitefield lived in the atmosphere of prayer, 
and tens of thousands were converted under 
his ministry. 

O, this blessed ministry of intercession! 
Stephen prayed and Saul of Tarsus was con- 
verted; Monica prayed and her son was deliy- 
ered from the prison house of sin. In a little 
town in Scotland the Christian people spent 
the whole night in prayer, and the next day, 
in an open-air service, five hundred people were 
converted. Many years ago some godly people 
in Massachusetts, who were distressed for the 
unsaved, spent an entire night in prayer, and 
the next day when President Edwards preached 
on “Sinners in the hands of an angry God,” 
men seized the pillars of the church as if to 


20 Tue Victory Lire. 


prevent their feet slipping into hell. Over a 
hundred years ago a number of students in 
Yale University rose up each morning before 
daybreak, and, through the long winter months, 
pleaded with God for a revival. The revival 
came, and it is said that every student in the 
University surrendered to Christ. 

Dr. J. G. K. McClure tells about an invalid 
woman residing at Springfield, Illinois, who 
had been bed-ridden for seventeen years, and 
was almost helpless. For many years she had 
been praying to God in a general way to save 
souls. One day she asked for pen and paper. 
“She wrote down the names of fifty-seven ac- 
quaintances. She prayed for each of these by 
name three times a day. She wrote them let- 
ters telling them of her interest in them. She 
also wrote to Christian friends, in whom she 
knew these persons had confidence, and urged 
them to speak to these persons about their 
soul’s welfare and to do their best to persuade 
them to repent and believe. She had unques- 
tioning faith in God. In her humble, earnest 
dependence upon him she thus interceded for 
the unsaved. In time every one of those fifty- 
seven persons avowed faith in Jesus Christ as 
his Savior.” And did we have more men and 
women now who understood the secret of pre- 


Tue Victory oF PRAYER. 21 


vailing with God revivals would break out 
everywhere, and the kingdom of our Christ 
would come speedily. 

5. We are to pray to get victory over tempta- 
tion. “Pray that ye enter not into tempta- 
tion.” (Luke xxii, 40.) Many a man is utterly 
defeated in the battle with sin who would have 
triumphed had he met the temptation with 
prayer. Had the disciples who went with their 
Master into Gethsemane, on that eventful 
night, been praying instead of sleeping, they 
would not have forsaken their Lord so hastily, 
nor have suffered the shame of denial. 

It is when the devil catches us without the 
armor of prayer that he makes his deadly as- 
saults, and overcomes us. When the lamp of 
prayer burns low the soul is most easily snared. 
There is many a despairing one who cries out, 
“Tniquities are too strong for me,” or, “O 
wretched man that I am! who shall deliver 
me from the body of this death?’ who, if he 
would fly to Christ in this hour of temptation, 
would find at the mercy-seat victory and joy. 

An old-time Methodist class-leader used to 
give this advice to the new converts in his 
class: “When you are tempted to do wrong 
look up and say, ‘Jesus, help me, and he will 
always hear.” Many a \victory has been won 


22 Tuer Victory Lire. 


by observing this simple rule. It is said of 
Robert Hall that, as a lad, he had a violent 
temper. One day he was so troubled that he 
went into a quiet place to pray. He said: “O, 
Lord, calm my mind.” His prayer was an- 
swered. He gained the victory over his pas- 
sion, and in after days was known as a man of 
sweet and gentle disposition. 

6. We are to have stated times and seasons 
Sor special prayer. “Enter into thine inner 
chamber, and having shut thy door, pray to 
thy Father who is in secrct, and thy Father 
who seeth in secret shall recompense thee.” 
Of Jesus it is said: “And in the morning, rising 
up a great while before day, he went out, 
and departed into a solitary place, and there 
prayed.” And if our divine Lord needed to 
keep the Morning Watch, how much more do 
we. No man or woman can afford to enter 
into the duties and conflicts of daily life with- 
out first waiting before God in the secret place 
for Bible reading and prayer. All Christians 
should keep the Morning Watch. 

Nor can we afford to neglect family worship. 
Every home should have its altar, where the 
family may gather at least once each day. In 
these busy days many family altars have been 
thrown down, and in their stead have risen, as 


Tue Victory or PRAYER. 123 


in Israel’s days of backsliding, altars to gold, 
and lust, and worldly amusement. And God 
pity the home from which children and young 
people go out into the world without the mem- 
ory of a family altar. 

After General Clinton B. Fisk was married 
he became so engrossed in business that he 
almost forgot about God, until one evening his 
little three year old daughter came and knelt 
at his knee to say her evening prayer. The 
young father was embarrassed to hear the 
child say “God bless papa and mamma.” But 
he was more embarrassed when she climbed on 
his knee, and putting her arms about his neck, 
said “Papa, why don’t you pray?’ Mr. Fisk 
put the child down without answering her 
question, and went off to the bank to balance 
his books. When he came home that night he 
said to his wife, “Jenny, did you hear the 
question that Mary asked me to-night?’ “Yes, 
Clinton, I heard it,” said Mrs. Fisk. “ Well, 
wife, I’ve been thinking it all over, and I’ve 
concluded that with God’s help we will have 
the prayer in this home we ought to have. If 
you will get the Bible, we will begin now.” 
They did so, and never afterwards did Clinton 
B. Fisk neglect family worship. 

Nor can we afford to neglect the week night 


94 Tuer Vireaae Lirr. 


prayer-meeting. At least one evening each 
week between Sabbaths should be sacredly set 
apart for this purpose. It is essential to spirit- 
ual development, and, when neglected, is al- 
most sure to result in loss of spiritual interest 
and growth. No mere social occasion, nor 
society engagement, should be allowed to in- 
terfere with our attendance upon this week 
night means of grace. 

7. But the real secret of victory in prayer is 

abiding in Christ. “If ye abide in me and my 
words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will 
and it shall be done unto you.” “He who 
-prays well must live well.” The mere repeti- 
tion of words is not prayer, and will avail 
nothing. There must be a Christ-centered life 
and a sincere desire behind every prayer. But 
how many seem satisfied with the mere form 
of prayer, instead of having the Christ-life! 

A lady, who was absent from home for a 
few days, had left her little four-year-old girl 
in charge of the nurse. One day, while the 
little tot was playing about in the kitchen, the 
cook stumbled over her, and spoke sharply to 
her. She ran upstairs, crying. Presently the 
nurse came in from the laundry, and went to 
search for the child. She found her asleep on 


Tuer Victory or Prayer. 25 


the floor of her mother’s room, hugging her 
mother’s old red wrapper. When she awoke, 
the nurse asked what she was doing with the 
old red wrapper. The child replied, “ Well, I 
wanted my mamma, and when I could n’t have 
my mamma, I wanted something like my 
mamma.” How many are contented with the 
mere garments of prayer—the form of words! 
No wonder many prayers go unanswered. 

Mr. Moody once related this incident con- 
cerning his own little son: “My wife came 
down one evening and said she had had some 
trouble with one of the children. He was not 
willing to obey, and he had gone off to bed 
without asking her forgiveness. I went up and 
sat down by the side of the little child, and said, 
‘Did you pray to-night? ‘I said my prayers.’ 
‘Did you pray? ‘I said my prayers.’ ‘ Did you 
pray? ‘Well, papa, I told you that I said my 
prayers.’ ‘Yes, I heard you; but did you pray? 

“* Well, now, said I, ‘Are you going to go 
off tosleep without praying? After astruggle 
he said, ‘I wish you would call mamma.’ She 
came up and was glad to forgive him, and then 
he wanted to get out of bed and pray. He 
had ‘said his prayers,’ but now he wanted to 


‘ pray.’ ”» 


26 Tue Vicrory Lire. 


How few there are who really abide in 
Christ, and have his constant fellowship! So 
little Bible study, and so little meditation! 

When we are doers of the Word as well as 
hearers, then we keep his commandments; and 
Jesus said, “If ye keep my commandments, 
ye shall abide in my love.” Christ, then, has 
full possession of us, and we have yielded in 
complete submission to his blessed will. Then 
we become invincible. We prevail with God. 
So did Daniel, and Paul, and Knox, and Lu- 
ther, and Wesley, and Catherine of Sienna, and 
David Livingstone; and so may we. 


WEEK 2. 
THE VICTORY OF PRAISE. 


Cuaracter Stupy: David. 


Memory Verse: I will bless the Lord at all 
times; his praise shall continually be in my 
mouth. (Psa. xxxiv, 1.) 


Song is the language of victory. The soul 
that sings triumphs. Singing, when not pros- 
tituted from its holy purpose, is divine. Could 
we poor mortals only hear a little better, or 
could this earthy wadding be removed from 
our ears, we might enjoy the music of the 
skies. For it may be that God has set all the 
swinging worlds to some glorious symphony; 
and it may be that the morning stars still 
shout their hallelujahs. 

God would have us live lives of praise. The 
devil has very little chance to get into a heart 
that is resonant with holy song. That eccen- 
tric but consecrated Welsh preacher, Christ- 
mas Evans, has left us a beautiful illustration 
of the power of Christian song. He says: “I 
saw the unclean spirit, rising like a winged 

27 


98 Tux Victory Lire. 


dragon, circling in the air, and seeking a rest- 
ing-place. He spies a young man in the bloom 
of life and rejoicing in his strength, seated 
on the front of his cart, going for a load of 
lime. ‘There he is! said the old dragon. 
‘His veins are full of blood, and his bones of 
marrow; I will throw into his bosom sparks 
from hell; I will set all his passions on fire; I 
will lead him from bad to worse, until he shall 
perpetrate every sin; I will make him a mur- 
derer, and his soul shall sink, never again to 
rise, in the lake of fire’ By this time I see it 
descend with a fell swoop towards the earth ; 
but, nearing the youth, the dragon heard him 
sing: 
““* Guide me, O thou great Jehovah! 
Pilgrim through this barren land: 
IT am weak, but thou art mighty ; 
Hold me with thy powerful hand. 
Strong Deliverer, 
Be thou still my strength and shield!’ 


‘A dry, dry place this, says the dragon; and 
away he goes. But I see him again hovering 
about in the air, and casting about for a suit- 
able resting-place. Beneath his eye there is a 
flowery meadow, watered by a crystal stream, 
and he descries among the kine a maiden about 
eighteen years of age, picking up here and 


Tua Vicrory or Praise. 29 


there a beautiful flower. ‘There she is!’ says 
Apollyon, intent upon her soul. ‘I will poison 
her thoughts; she shall stray from the paths of 
virtue ; she shall think evil thoughts and be- 
come impure; she shall become a lost creature 
in the great city, and at last I will cast her 
down from the precipice into everlasting burn- 
ings. Again he took his downward flight; 
but he no sooner came near the maiden than 
he heard her sing the following words, with a 
voice that might have melted the rocks: 
“** Other refuge have I none; 
Hangs my helpless soul on Thee ; 
Leave, ah! leave me not alone; 
Still support and comfort me.”’ 

‘ This place is too dry for me,’ says the dragon, 
and off he flies. Now he ascends from the 
meadow, like some great balloon, but very 
much enraged, and breathing forth ‘smoke and 
fire, and threatening ruin and damnation to all 
created things. ‘I will have a place to dwell 
in, he says, ‘in spite of decree, covenant, or 
grace.’ As he was thus speaking, he beheld a 
woman, ‘stricken in years,’ busy with her 
spinning-wheel at her cottage-door. ‘Ah, I 
see!’ says the dragon; ‘she is ripe for destruc- 
tion; she shall know the bitterness of the wail 
which ascends from the burning mar! of heli!’ 


30 Tue Victory Lire. 


He forthwith alights on the roof of her cot; 
when he hears the old woman repeat with 
trembling voice, but with heavenly feeling, the 
words, ‘For the mountains shall depart, and 
the hills be removed; but my kindness shall 
not depart from thee.’ ‘This place is too dry 
for me,’ says the dragon, and away he goes 
again. . . . ‘In yonder cottage lies old 
William, slowly wasting away. He has borne 
‘the heat and the burden, and altogether has 
had a hard life of it. He has very little reason 
to be thankful for the mercies he has received, 
and has not found serving God a very profit- 
able business; I know I can get him to “curse 
God and die.”’ Thus musing, away he flew to 
the sick man’s bedside; but, as he listened, he 
heard the words, ‘Though I walk through the 
valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no 
evil, for thou art with me: thy rod and thy 
staff, they comfort me.’ Mortified and enraged, 
the dragon took his flight, saying, ‘I will return 
to the place from whence I came.’” 

The Bible emphasizes in many places the 
value of holy song. Look at that scene in the 
history of Israel when God commanded Je- 
hoshaphat to set a choir of singers in the fore- 
front of his army; and as they sang, the Moab- 


Tuer Victory oF PRAISE. 81 


ites and Ammonites melted away, smitten of 
the Lord. 

This recalls an incident in the battle of 
Waterloo, when, at a critical moment, Welling- 
ton discovered that the valiant Forty-second 
Highlanders were wavering. Instantly the 
Highland pipers were summoned to the firing 
line, and when those Scottish heroes heard the 
first strains of that martial music, they recov- 
ered themselves, reformed quickly in line, and, 
with a wild cheer, swept the field before them. 

Christian song has won many victories. 
Charles Wesley was once seized by a mob who 
carried him toward a bridge, intending to 
throw him into the river. But, as they went, 
their prisoner began to sing, and before the 
bridge was reached they put him down, and 
melted away. And was there not in this little 
incident a prophecy of how the Gospel hymns 
written by this saintly Christian poet should 
be the means of deliverance to many an im- 
prisoned soul? 

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul gives 
some explicit directions regarding singing. He 
tells us the purpose of song, how to sing, and 
what tosing. “Let the word of Christ dwell 
in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and 


32 Tur Victory Lirs. 


admonishing one another; in psalms and hymns 
and spiritual songs, singing with grace in 
your hearts to the Lord.” The purpose of 
Christian song is to edify and help others; not 
to entertain, but to teach and lead to a better 
life. Singing, with such a purpose, will have 
the inspiration of victory in it, and will have 
a charm for the soul, and a quickening imflu- 
ence upon the whole life. He who has once 
heard such singing, will easily recognize it 
again, for, compared with it, all other is like 
sounding brass. 

In that old, old story of mythology the si- 
rens sang so sweetly that the sailors in the 
ships, passing near, were charmed from their 
posts of duty, the vessels were wrecked, and 
the sirens gathered the spoil. When Ulysses 
came near he gave orders that his sailors’ ears 
be filled with wax, and then had himself bound 
to a mast, and so passed the island safely. 
But, when Orpheus, in search of the Golden 
Fleece, sailed near, he sang a sweeter song than 
sirens ever knew, and his sailors heeded not 
the music from the shore. So there may be in 
Christian song a power and a charm that will 
make all the world’s songs seem like the silliest 
nonsense. The voice that has been touched 
and tuned by the Spirit of God, thus having 


- 


Tuer Victory or Praise. 83 


in it a heart melody, will possess a holy 
charm and inspiration. When Mr. Sankey 
was becoming famous as a gospel singer, the 
musical critics were quoted to prove that he 
knew little about music, and that his voice was 
untrained; but the Holy Spirit had put into 
that voice an element of power to touch human 
hearts such as no trained choir could ever hope 
to have. 

How much of the singing in our churches is 
a mere performance, and a mockery of holy 
worship! Singers are often trained, not to sing 
intelligently and helpfully, but to display the 
compass, the force, and elasticity of the voice, 
“squealing up to high C or down to low V,” 
while the words might belong to almost any 
language known to earth for aught the con- 
gregation can tell. And this prostitution of 
sacred song for the sake of entertainment, 
bears fruit in the desire for the introduction of 
all sorts of novelties into the churches to catch 
the curious. A great daily paper of New York 
City recently gave space to an editorial sug- 
gested by the introduction of a whistling solo 
as a part of the service in a prominent church 
of that city. The paper calls it a distinct step 
forward in “church vaudeville,” and tells how 
heartily the young lady was encored, and that 

8 


34 Tuer Victory Lirs. 


she responded with “The Mocking Bird.” 
Shame on the church and pastor who will per- 
mit such sacrilege in the place, and at the hour 
dedicated to holy worship! 

Paul says that we are to sing spzrztwal songs. 
How often the service of worship has been 
spoiled, and how often the Holy Spirit has been 
grieved by some silly sentimental ditty either 
before or after the sermon! At a large young 
people’s convention, an eminent minister 
preached a helpful and powerful sermon on 
the Holy Spirit. At the close of the sermon 
many were in tears, and the only fitting post- 
lude would have -been a consecration hymn, 
and a consecration prayer. But no sooner was 
the preacher seated than a young lady stepped 
to the front of the choir loft and began to sing 
something about “a little bird at sea,” in which 
there was neither sense nor devotion. And 
will it be wondered that the blessed effects of 
the sermon were largely dissipated, and a 
service which might have resulted in great and 
lasting good was shorn of its influence and 
power? 

Paul said, “Rejoice evermore,” and again, 
“In everything give thanks.” In the midst 
of the most adverse conditions Paul lived the 
life of praise, and was victor, Look at the two 


Tue Victory or PRAIsE. 85 


missionaries in that old Philippian prison. 
They had been cruelly scourged and then 
thrust into a cell, and their feet fastened in 
the stocks. In a strange city, in a dark, damp 
prison cell, in the midst of bitter foes, yet Paul 
and Silas held a praise service that lasted until 
midnight. Then God sent an earthquake to 
loose their bonds and set them free. And if 
we would learn to rejoice in our prison cells of 
disappointment and sorrow and_ persecution 
God would set us free. Goethe’s mother used 
to say that when her son had a grief he turned 
it into a poem and so got rid of it. And we 
might turn our sorrows into hymns of praise, 
and find the burden gone. 

An aged man who had been a remarkable 
gospel singer went to the hospital for an opera- 
tion for cancer of the tongue. Before the 
anesthetic was administered he held up his 
hand and said: “ Wait a minute, doctor, I have 
something to say to you. When this is over 
will I ever sing again?” The doctor could not 
speak for emotion. He simply shook his head, 
while the tears filled his eyes. The sick man 
understood. He appealed to the doctor to lift 
him up. The doctor did so. Then he said: 
“I’ve had many a good time singing God’s ~ 
praises. I have one song to sing which will 


36 Tue Victory Lire. 


be my last on earth. It will be a song of grati- 
tude and praise to God.” Then from the op- 
erating table he sang: 


**¢T’]l praise my Maker while I’ve breath, 
And when my voice is lost in death, 
Praise shall employ my nobler powers: 
My days of praise shall ne’er be past, 
While life and thought and being last, 
Or immortality endures.’ ” 


WEEK 3. 
THE VICTORY OF FAITH. 


CuHaracter Stupy: Moses. 


Memory Verses: Now faith is assurance of 
things hoped for, a conviction of things not 
seen. (Heb. xi, 1, R. V.) 

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, re 
fused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daugh: 
ter; choosing rather to be evil entreated with 
the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures 
of sin for a season; accounting the reproach of 
Christ greater riches than the treasures of 
Egypt: for he looked unto the recompense of 
reward. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fear- 
ing the wrath of the King: for he endured as 
seeing him who is invisible. (Heb. xi, 24-27.) 

And this is the victory that hath overcome 
the world, even our faith. (John v, 4.) 


There is a faith that is essential to all civil- 
ization. Without it society and commerce and 
every happy home would fall in pieces. That 

87 


38 Tue Victory Lirs. 


which God has made the condition of our sal- 
vation is the most important element in all 
man’s relations with his fellows. Indeed, the 
man who proposes to go through life without 
faith will have a hard time. 2 

“Tn an English town,” says Dr. A. C. Dixon, 
“a report got out that the bank was about to 
fail. Five hundred people ran for their depos- 
its on the same day. The pastor of the dis- 
senting Church in the town was invited by the 
bank directors to meet them. They said to 
him, ‘Sir, if these people press us to the wall, 
they will lose their money. If they don’t 
press us, we will pay every dollar.” The pastor 
said, ‘I will help you; I have some money, 
and I trust you’ He went home, got his 
money, came to the bank door, and, standing 
on the step, said, ‘Friends, you all know me; 
I have been living here twenty-five years, and 
I believe in this bank. Here are three hun- 
dred pounds that I am going to deposit. I 
believe the bank is good.’ In less than thirty 
minutesevery one of those people had dispersed, 
and the bank was saved by faith. Unbelief 
as to that bank was about to ruin it. The 
moment faith was implanted, the bank was 
saved. Railroads are saved by faith. Steam- 
boats are saved by faith. Your business, friend, 


Tue Vicrory or Fairs. 39 


is saved by faith. Every good thing on earth is 
saved by faith. And when the infidel rails at 
the religion of Jesus Christ because we are 
saved by faith, he is railing at every institu- 
tion that this country holds dear.” 

And if it be easy for us to accept human 
testimony or authority, why should it be diffi- 
cult for us to accept a higher testimony—the 
witness of God himself? But that is faith— 
taking God at his word. 

Faith begets confidence and trust. Dr. 
T. L. Cuyler illustrates clearly when he says: 
“When a miner looks at the rope that is to 
lower him into the deep mine, he may coolly 
say, ‘I have faith im that rope as well made 
and strong.’ But when he lays hold of it, and 
swings down by it into the tremendous chasm, 
then he is believing on the rope. Then he is 
trusting himself to the rope. It is not a mere 
opinion—it is an act. The miner lets go of 
everything else, and bears his whole weight 
on those well-braided strands of hemp. Now 
that is faith.” 

Faith, in a general sense, takes in the invisi- 
ble world, and the entire revelation of God. 
It might better be called belief, being largely 
an intellectual act. It is possible, however, 
for a man to have this head faith, and be far 


40 Tue Victory Lire. 


from being a Christian. Intellectual assent 
never saves a soul. Even the devils have head 
faith, for they “believe and tremble.” And 
persons are sometimes found with a mere in- 
tellectual belief who are living worldly lives, 
who doubt the divine nature of Christ, who 
disbelieve in the future punishment of the 
wicked, and who reject certain portions of the 
inspired Word of God. Indeed, a man may 
have an intellectual faith and be anything but 
a Christian. 

But justifying or saving faith is largely of 
the heart, and has always a single object. 
That object is Christ. To be sure, the intellect 
and will must enter into this faith. Jesus 
said: “If any man willeth to do his will, he 
shall know of the teaching.” (John vii, 17.) 
And the apostle said: “He that cometh to 
God must believe that he is, and that he isa 
rewarder of them that diligently seek him.” 
(Heb. xi, 6.) But it is “with the heart that 
man believeth unto righteousness,” and “if 
thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as 
Lord, and shalt believe in thine heart that 
God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be 
saved.” This heart faith, or saving faith, is 
always preceded by repentance, and the Bible 
always gives repentance the place of priority. 


Tue Victory or Fairu. 41 


“Repent ye and believe the gospel.” And 
while it is by faith we are saved, yet one with- 
out the other is incomplete. Having repented 
of our sins, faith clings to Christ as Savior 
with filial love and childlike trust, and takes 
from God, through Christ, the pardon for sin, 
and all other gospel blessings which he has so 
freely promised. 

Now the Bible teaches: 

1. That faith is a shield. “Withal taking 
up the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be 
able to quench all the fiery darts of the evil 
one.” (Eph. vi, 16.) Read that wonderful 
eleventh chapter of Hebrews, and see how that 
glorious host of heroes and heroines “ through 
faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteous- 
ness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of 
lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the 
edge of the sword, from weakness were made 
strong, waxed mighty in war, turned to flight 
armies of aliens.” 

In the famous Eiffel Tower there is an aerial 
chamber where a person may sit during a 
thunder-storm without the least possibility of 
danger. The lofty:summit attracts the elec- 
tric currents, and the lightnings play on every 
side, but the chamber is so constructed that, 
inside, one is absolutely safe, although sur- 


42 Tue Victory Lire. 


rounded by an electric blaze. And faith be- 
comes a four-sided shield, a strong tower, a 
sure defense, “an impenetrable refuge, the en- 
chanted chamber of victory.” 

2. That faith brings peace. “Thou wilt keep 
him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on 
thee, because he trusteth in thee.” (Isa. xxvi, 
3.) So many lives are not under control, but, 
like the drifting vessel, answer no helm! Faith 
-means soul-calm. Faith means self-control. 
Where faith is perfect, there will be no losing 
the temper. “Perfect peace” and the losing 
of the temper can not be reconciled. “And 
the peace of God, which passeth all under- 
standing, shall guard your hearts and your 
thoughts in Christ Jesus.” A living faith in 
Christ will bring to the door of the life a di- 
vine sentinel who will stand guard, and we 
shall be ever under control. 

3. Lhat faith is a purifier. “ Purifying their 
hearts by faith” (Acts xv, 9.) Belief means 
knowledge, not the blind acceptance of some- 
thing not known to be true, but an intelligent 
and reasonable knowledge of Christ. And 
that knowledge can not help but purify the 
life. As Raphael admired and studied and be- 
lieved in Angelo until he partook of his genius, 


Tue Vicrory or Fairu. 43 


so we cling to and love Christ until we become 
like him. 

A living faith will show itself in a spirit of 
expectancy and confidence. 

1. In the daily life of fidelity to God. Of 
Abraham it is said, “Who in hope believed 
against hope.” He lived on the victory side 
in spite of discouragement. He overcame 
doubt. He believed that nothing was impos- 
sible with God. When Daniel Webster was 
speaking at Bunker Hill the great crowd 
thronged toward him until there began to be 
danger that the stand would collapse. Webster 
shouted, “ Keep back! keep back!” “It is im- 
possible,” said some one in the crowd. “ Noth- 
ing is impossible at Bunker Hill!” shouted the 
orator. And, involuntarily, the great throng 
moved back. So, no matter how untoward the 
circumstances in which we are placed, the life 
will be filled with the blessed expectancy of 
faith, and difficulties will vanish, and obstacles 
will be overcome. Sorrow and care and suf- 
fering may crowd hard upon us, but even these 
will cower before this triumphant confidence 
in God. 

2. In all public effort in behalf of the un- 
saved. Ministers will expect people to be saved 


44 Tue Victory Lirs. 


under the proclamation of the Word. They 
will look for conversions in the regular services 
of the sanctuary and in the prayer-meetings. 
The same spirit of expectancy will possess the 
Church membership. Sunday-school teachers 
and workers in the young people’s societies 
will ever keep the salvation of souls in the 
forefront of all their efforts. In a Church 
possessed of a living faith it will be impossible 
for months and years to go by and no souls be 
born into the new life. The humblest circum- 
stances and occasions will be made to serve 
the Redeemer’s kingdom, and be turned to the 
interest of immortal souls. 

It wasa cold, rainy Sunday night in England 
many years ago, and the pastor of a certain 
Church hesitated to go to the service. But he 
did go. There were only a scattered few in 
the pews. At first he thought to dismiss the 
service without any sermon, but finally went 
on. A boy in the gallery heard the text and 
the sermon, and was converted. That boy was 
Charles H. Spurgeon, who led thirteen thou 
sand people into his own Church, and was the 
means of the conversion of tens of thousands 
the world around. 

3. In the hour of death. Death has no fear 
for the Christian who knows the fullness of 


Tue Victory or Farru. 45 


faith. His Lord is the conqueror of death. 
Death is simply a translation into his presence 
who brought to sin and death eternal defeat, 
So Paul could say, “ For to me to live is Christ. 
and to die is gain.” 


““Why be afraid of death as though your life were 


breath? 
Death but anoints your eyes with clay. O glad 
surprise ! 
Is sleep a thing you dread? Yet, sleeping, you are 
dead 


Till you awake and rise, here or beyond the skies.’ 


WEEK 4. 
THE VICTORY OF LOVE. 


CHARACTER Stupy: John. 


' Memory Verses: Love suffereth long, and is 
kind; love envieth not; love vaunteth not 
itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself 
unseemly, seeketh not its own, is not provoked, 
taketh not account of evil; rejoiceth not in 
unrighteousness, but rejoiceth with the truth; 
beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth 
all things, endureth all things. Love never 
faileth. (1 Cor. xiii, 4-8.) 


Perhaps the most beautiful of all the tradi- 
tions concerning the later life of John the 
Apostle is that which relates that, when he was 
an old man at Ephesus, the disciples would 
carry him into their place of worship and ask 
him to preach to them. But the aged apostle 
would simply say, “Little children, love one 
another.” And when they would urge him to 
tell them more of what Jesus said and did, he 
would say: “Little children, love one another; 

for all that Jesus said and all that Jesus did is 
; 46 


Tue Victory oF Love. 47 


comprehended in these words, ‘ Little children, 
love one another.’ ” 

John is the apostle of love. It was he who 
remembered the Savior’s words, “ For God so 
loved the world that he gave his only begotten 
Son, that whosoever believeth on him should 
not perish, but have eternal life.’ And what 
would we do without John iii, 16? 

Christ’s kingdom is founded upon love, and 
love triumphs. For that reason neither Mo- 
hammedanism, nor Buddhism, nor Confu- 
cianism can stand before Christianity. Jesus 
said that the first and greatest commandment 
was this: “ Thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, 
with all thy heart, and soul, and mind, and 
strength, and thy neighbor as thyself.” And 
Paul was but expanding upon this command- 
ment when he wrote the thirteenth of First 
Corinthians. When we keep this command- 
ment of our Lord, then we shall live in the 
fourth chapter of John’s first letter, and in the 
thirteenth of Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, 
and know the victory of Love. 

But there are some things which keep us 
out of the victory of love. 

1. Evil Speaking. Naturalists tell us that 
the snail has its teeth on its tongue, and that 
upon the tongues of some snails as many as 


48 Tue Viotory Lire. 


thirty thousand teeth have been found. The 
snail rolls its tongue up like a ribbon, and, of 
course, its teeth are very small, but they saw 
through the toughest leaves with ease. There 
are some men and women who have teeth on 
their tongues, and are ever ready to use them. 
There are pillows wet with tears, and eyes red 
with weeping, and hearts broken, and homes 
ruined, and lives blasted, all because of the 
unbridled human tongue. And the devil has 
no more remorseless instrument of torture at 
his hand than the tongue of the gossip, the 
backbiter, or the slanderer. Shame to say, 
some professing Christians become the ready 
tools of Satan, and bring disgrace upon their 
Master’s name, and keep many a soul out of 
the kingdom. 

On a railroad train, we fell into conversation 
with an intelligent gentleman of large business 
interests in certain Western cities. Presently 
our conversation turned to more serious mat- 
ters, and when asked whether he were a Chris- 
tian, said, “ No, I can not say that lam. And 
I do not know but that I am as good as most 
Church members. Now, for instance, yester- 
day I got on board the train to ride into 
Chicago, and there came into the coach and 
sat beside me, a woman, whom I knew very 


Tue Vicrory or Love 49 


well, and who is prominent in Church work. 
She claims to be a Christian, and knows that 
I am not a Christian, but in all that three 
hours ride she did not do another blessed 
thing but gossip and tell tales about her 
friends and neighbors, until, when the train 
reached the city 1 was heartily glad to get 
away from her. Now, why did that woman 
who professes to be a follower of Christ, spend 
all the time in gossip and have nothing to say 
about her Master?” And who can answer that 
man’s question? The sin of evil speaking 
among Church members not only keeps many 
out of the victory of love, but keeps many a 
soul from Christ. It would be a good plan for 
us all to adopt the rule of Hannah More, who 
would say to the tale bearer, “Come, we will 
go and ask if that be true,” and forthwith 
insist that the peddler of evil tales go with her 
to the person gossiped about. 

2. The habit of complaining keeps many out 
of the victory of love. Some people always 
look through green goggles and become chronic 
growlers. If they ever get to heaven they 
will doubtless tind many things to criticise, 
for here they have nurtured the grumbling 
spirit until it has become a part of their 
nature. 

a 


50 Tue Victory Lire. 


There is a story about an old farmer who 
said that while he always put several barrels 
of good apples in his cellar in the autumn, yet 
he never saw a good apple. His wife was a 
frugal body, and would pick the apples over 
every few days bringing up the partly decayed 
and spotted ones for the table, so that she just 
kept pace with the rot in the fruit, and the old 
farmer had to eat partly decayed apples all 
winter. And some people seem to see only 
decay in everything. Indeed they live on the 
“rottenness of pessimism.” They carry about 
continually the spirit of complaint. Nothing 
suits them. The weather is too hot or too 
cold; the Church is too large or too small; 
the preacher is too young or too old; the ser- 
mon is too long or too short. Their faces 
begin to reflect their spirit and soon remind 
one of a coffin lid, while their words always 
depress, and make us wish to shun their com- 
pany. O! these who have contracted this 
habit of complaining can never know the 
victory of love. 

3. Malice will keep us out of the victory of 
love. And nothing will do it more effectually. 
Malice begets hatred, and there is no surer, 
shorter way to perdition than by the way of 


Tue Victory or Love. 51 


hatred. Malice indicates littleness of soul. 
How many a man has allowed envy and jeal- 
ousy to be his conquerors! It takes a great 
soul to pity and forgive. Look at David. In 
the cave, he came upon his bitterest enemy, 
Saul; he had him completely in his power; he 
could have taken his life in an instant. But 
David’s great heartedness conquered. Saul 
was cruel and malicious; David was magnani- 
mous, and had a right to be called a hero. But 
there are so many who allow a bitter spirit to 
keep them out of the victory of love, and 
defeat the highest purposes of life. 

4. Selfishness will keep us out of the victory 
of love. The self life and the Christ life are 
opposites. Jesus said, “If any man would 
come after me let him deny himself.” Let 
self be mastered, be crucified. And, indeed, 
there is nothing that will help us get the 
mastery over self like a baptism of love. Self 
is touchy. Self is easily offended. Self is 
extremely sensitive. Self hates enemies. Self 
and love can not reign in the same heart. But 
let love come in, then self will have to go, 
for love will flood the heart. “The love of 
God hath been shed abroad in our hearts 
through the Holy Spirit that was given unto 


52 Tue Victory Lirr. 


us,” says the apostle. And self can not stay 
before the pouring out, or flooding, of God’s 
love. 

Love will triumph when everything else 
fails. “The greatest of these is love.” Love’s 
sacrifice will be joyously made, and love’s 
burden easily borne, and there will be nothing 
that can not be surrendered for Jesus’ sake 
when his love reigns. A little boy stood by 
his mother’s bedside. She was very ill. He 
held her fevered hand in his. Out in the 
other room was the boy’s pet canary. He 
loved it. It would hop on his shoulder, and 
eat its food from his hand. The bird began to 
sing. A look of pain crossed the sick woman’s 
face. “What is it, Mamma?” said the boy. 
“Does n’t the bird sing sweetly ?” “O, my boy,” 
said the mother, “every note is like a throb of 
pain.” The boy loosed his hold upon her hand. 
He took the cage down and went out. In half 
an hour he returned, saying, “It will not hurt 
you any more, Mamma.” He had given it 
away to a neighbor’s boy. Love had con- 
quered. And there will not be any idol, or 
amusement, or evil habit that we will not be 
willing to give up for Jesus’ sake when love 
reigns. Everything that would grieve our 


Tue Victory or Love. 53 


Lord must go. O, that we might know the 
victory of love! 

To be forgotten, and neglected ; to be in- 
sulted, and persecuted; to be misunderstood, 
and socially ostracized, and yet take it all in 
loving silence for Jesus’ sake—that is the 
victory of love. To be content with humble 
fare and solitude, and to endure suffering 
patiently and sweetly for Jesus’ sake—that is 
the victory of love. 

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, 
nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor 
things present, nor things to come, nor height, 
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be 
able to separate us from the love of God, 
which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” 


WEEK 5. 
THE VICTORY OF OBEDIENCE. 


CuHaracter Stupy: Abraham. 


Memory Verszs: To obey is better than sac- 
rifice. (1 Sam. xv, 22.) But I wholly followed 
the Lord my God. (Josh. xiv, 8.) Not every 
one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter 
into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth 
the will of my Father which is in heaven. 
(Matt. vii, 21.) 


More than fifty times it is said of Abraham 
that he obeyed God. God expects obedience. 
He is our Father. He knows best what we 
should do and be. That we may learn this 
lesson of obedience well, he has emphasized it 
again and again in his Word. Take a con- 
cordance and look up all the passages that 
speak of obedience, and write them out. Then 
write out the instances where punishment is 
visited upon the disobedient, and you will be 
surprised to know how God has emphasized 
obedience. 

54 


Tue Victory or OBEDIENCE. 55 


But there are other ways in which God has 
emphasized this law of obedience. 

1. Jn that all nature obeys him. He is the 
Creator of all things; and every created thing, 
as well as every law that rules in the mighty 
realms of his creation, is obedient to his will. 
In the beginning he said, “ Let there be light,” 
and it was so. He said, “ Let the waters bring 
forth abundantly,” and it was so. He said, 
“Let there be lights in the firmament of 
heaven,” and it was so. When the Creator of 
worlds was here upon earth, incarnate, he 
spake to the winds, and they were still; he 
spake to the waters, and they were calm. And 
see with what precision do the shining worlds 
above move in their “unfenced courses,” obe- 
dient to his will,— 


‘* Forever singing, as they shine, 
The hand that made us is divine.’’ 


For astronomical science has demonstrated 
that no day in the last two thousand years has 
differed from the average day by the hun- 
dredth part of a second. 

2. By putting into human consciousness a 
knowledge that it is right to obey God. Even 
unsaved men, unless far gone in apostasy, ad- 
mit that men should yield obedience to God. 


56 Tue Victory Lire. 


And they know when we Christians are obey- 
ing or disobeying him. Indeed, they some- 
times have higher standards of obedience for 
Christians than we have for ourselves. In 
British Columbia, an American consul had 
done a favor for two Chinamen, whereupon 
one of them offered him a cigar. But the 
other interposed, saying, “No, no; him no 
smokee — him Jesus man.” Would that all 
“Jesus men” had as high an ideal of clean- 
liness! 

3. In that Christ was an example of perfect 
obedience. He said: “ My meat is to do the will 
of him that sent me, and to finish his work.” 
“T am among you as one that serveth.” “I 
seek not mine own will, but the will of the 
Father which hath sent me.” “I have glori- 
fied thee on earth; I have finished the work 
which thou gavest me to do.” From the be- 
ginning to the end of his glorious ministry 
the Master was under a mighty constraint to 
do his Father’s will. It was the ruling prin- 
ciple of his life. And when his work on earth 
was done, he could say, as he hung upon the 
cross, “ It is finished.” 

There are some things necessary to implicit, 
cheerful obedience: 

1. Love. True obedience must proceed from 


Tue Victory or OBEDIENCE. 57 


the heart. “The hireling obeys for interest, 
the slave obeys for fear, but the child obeys 
for love.” A little child was told to bring her 
father’s slippers, but she did not want to'leave 
her play. When she did bring them, she came 
without a smile, saying, “I bringed ’em, papa, 
but I guess you need n’t say ‘thank you,’ ’cause 
I only did it with my hands; my heart kept 
on saying, ‘I won’t.’” And that is the way 
some people obey. But it is easy for the child 
who loves her parents supremely to obey. 
Love makes obedience a delight. What voice 
is sweeter than the voice of love? If we love 
God with all the heart, then his voice will 
have more charm for us than all the voices of 
the world, and we shall delight in his will. 
Love takes all the sternness out of justice, and 
all the hardness out of duty. 

2. The surrender of the will. We must not 
desire our own way but God’s way. We must 
let him choose for us. His will is best. If he 
choose for us the path of joy, we will praise 
him; if he choose the path of suffering, we 
will patiently walk in it, counting ourselves 
happy to suffer in his name. A willing heart 
is closely bound up with an obedient mind. If 
all God’s children were living lives of entire 
surrender to his will, how speedily the king- 


58 Tur Victory Lirr 


‘dom of Christ would come into the world! If 
Abu Taher, with five hundred rebel Carma- 
thians, could meet and repulse the thirty thou- 
sand soldiers of the Caliph, because every man 
of the five hundred would instantly sacrifice 
his own life at the command of his leader, 
what could not our Lord Jesus Christ do with 
the great army of professing Christians, if 
each was fully submitted to his will? 

3. The indwelling of Christ. “That Christ 
may dwell in your hearts through faith.” “Lo, 
I am with you always, even unto the end of 
the world.” The Master’s presence makes 
obedience a delight. There is a story about 
an aged artist who had in his studio several 
young men. Once he went away to be gone 
several days. In his absence one young man 
conceived a noble picture. He tried to put it 
on canvas, but was unable to reach his ideal. 
Again and again he tried, but there was always 
something lacking. One evening he went home 
all discouraged. That night the master re- 
turned and took a look through the studio to 
see what the boys had been doing. His eye 
fell on this picture; he saw what it lacked, 
aud, with a few bold strokes, he completed it. 
Next morning when the young man entered 
the studio he cried, “The master has come! 


Tux Vicrory or OBEDIENCE. 59 


The master has come!” “How do you know?” 
they said. “See that picture?” said the young 
man. “None but the master could do that!” 
So the presence of Jesus will help us reach our 
ideals, and make obedience a joy. His pres- 
ence will be our inspiration. His life will be 
our pattern. 

God has a plan for every life, but he can 
work out that plan only as we implicitly obey 
him. Dr. Jacob Chamberlain, a missionary to 
India, describes the making of the famous 
India rugs, and tells how the weaver, by long- 
continued hand labor and closest watchfulness, 
is able to produce a perfect pattern. “The rug, 
however large it be, is woven in one piece. 
The warp is stretched vertically upon the sim- 
ple loom. There is no shuttle. There is ne 
beam. The weaver sits, or stands, facing the 
perpendicular warp. The only light in the 
room is from a window behind the weaver, 
shining over his shoulders, full upon the grow- 
ing rug before him. With deft fingers he runs 
in the different colored woolen yarns into the 
warp in front of him, and, with a heavy wooden 
comb, combs it down to its place, and, with 
hand shears, clips off the too long, protruding 
yarn. As you stand behind his back, and at 
one side, out of his light, watching him, he 


60 Tur Victory Lire. 


goes on, apparently forgetful of your presence, 
chanting to himself from memory the pattern 
he is weaving in as he swiftly inserts the 
threads, ‘six black, three brown, five red, 
seven white, and so on, as the hours go by. 
Now and then as he completes a figure, or part 
of one, he steps back to take a look and see if 
it is perfect; but, alas, he has made a slip. 
Some inches down where he has not been giv- 
ing due heed, his pattern is marred. Heaving 
a sigh, he again takes his place, and laboriously 
takes out the last half-hour’s or half-day’s work, 
and more carefully builds it over, for it must 
be perfect or it will not be accepted.” It is 
God’s will that our life should be “complete in 
him.” He has given us the perfect pattern, 
but how often we mar it by disobedience! We 
must study the Divine Pattern more carefully, 
and seek more light, so shall we “be changed 
into the same image from glory to glory.” 

Now there are three distinct rewards prom- 
ised in the Scripture to the obedient. 

1 Answered prayer. “If ye abide in me 
and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what 
ye will and it shall be done unto you.” “And 
whatsoever we ask we receive because we keep 
his commandments.” And here may be found 
the reason for many unanswered prayers. 


Tue Victory oF OBEDIENCE. 61 


There is not behind the prayer a life of obedi- 
ence. God will always set his seal upon the 
obedient, self-sacrificing life. He has shown 
us again and again what he will do for the man 
whom he can trust. J. Hudson Taylor, of the 
China Inland Mission, tells the following: 

“In November, 1886, we spent eight days in 
waiting upon God. We spent days of fasting, 
alternated with prayer, and we were led to pray 
to God to send one hundred missionaries. We 
were led to pray for one hundred missionaries 
to be sent out by our English board from Jan- 
uary to November. We were led to ask God 
to give £10,000 in addition to the income of 
previous years, and we asked for it to be given 
in such a manner—in such large sums—that 
the force of our staff might not be occupied in 
keeping accounts. God answered our prayers 
wonderfully. He sent us offers for more than 
six hundred missionaries, and at the end of the 
year over one hundred had gone. You ask, 
what about the income? God did not give us 
exactly the £10,000 we asked for, but gave 
us £11,000. And the £11,000 came in eleven 
contributions, the smallest amount being £500.” 

2. The gift of the Holy Spirit. “Whom 
God hath given to them that obey him.” The 
Holy Spirit is given for Christian service, and 


62 Tue Victory Lire. 


his power is manifest in action. He who does 
not propose to obey the Master’s command to 
be his witness and soul-winner, can not expect 
this gracious gift. No wonder many professing 
Christians know nothing of the fullness of the 
Holy Spirit. If they have sought this Gift it 
has been simply that they may enjoy them- 
selves, or feel better. But only when we are 
willing to do the Master’s bidding, and be his 
witnesses to the unsaved multitudes about us, 
can we become possessors of the fullness of the 
Holy Spirit. 

3. Deliverance from death. “He that doeth 
the will of God abideth forever.” “If aman 
keep my word he shall never see death.” Jesus 
is king over death. And he will never allow 
death to hurt his obedient children. For every 
child of God death has now lost its sting, and 
the grave its victory. 


WEEK 6. 
THE VICTORY OF COURAGE. 


CxHaARAcTER Stupy: Joshua. 


Memory Verses: Be strong and of a good 
courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dis- 
mayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee 
whithersoever thou goest. (Josh. i, 9.) 

I can do all things in him that strengtheneth 
me. (Phil. iv, 13.) 


A story is told of the great French soldier, 
Marshal Ney, who, when going into battle, 
found himself trembling from head to foot. 
He stopped, and, looking down at his smiting 
knees, said, “ You’re shaking, are you? Well, 
you would shake more if you knew where I’m 
going to take you.” Then he rushed to the 
front. Courage gets the mastery of the phys- 
ical feelings. Courage goes forward defying 
fear and difficulty. 

These are days of hero worship. Joshua 
was areal hero. He never faltered. He lit- 
erally obeyed the command of God to be 

63 


64 Tue Victory Lire. 


stroug and of a good courage. A careful study 
of his life will discover some reasons for his 
heroism. 

1. He made the Word of God his daily coun- 
selor. The Lord had spoken to him in these 
words: “This book of the law shall not de- 
part.out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate 
therein day and night, that thou mayest 
observe to do according to all that is written 
therein; for then thou shalt make thy way 
prosperous, and then thou shalt have good 
success.” There is no better guide book for 
the daily life, and there is no book that will 
inspire confidence and courage like the Word 
of God. It is the invincible “Sword of the 
Spirit,” and he who would be strong must 
make ita part of his armor,and know how to 
use it. 

2. He never forgot that he had real foes to 
face and overcome. The man who thinks of 
life as a mere playground is not likely to win 
life’s battle. Paul said, “For we wrestle not 
against flesh and blood, but against principal- 
ities, against powers, against the rulers of the 
darkness of this world, against spiritual wick- 
edness in high places.” Is it not usual for 
those who live nearest to God and do most for 
Christ to have the severest temptations? The 


Tue Victory or CouRAGE. 65 


devil bothers but little the Churck member 
who is doing nothing for his Lord; and it has 
well been said that “ when a professing Chris- 
tian sleeps the devil rocks the cradle.” Only 
constant wakefulness, constant watchfulness, 
and constant resistance of evil will bring vic- 
tory over spiritual foes. . 

3. He cultivated decision of character. We 
see this in his conduct when he was a member 
of the committee of twelve sent to explore the 
Promised Land. He and Caleb brought in a 
minority report. He had made up his mind 
that however mighty the enemy, and dis- 
couraging the prospect, it was right to obey 
God. Therefore he was unfaltering in his 
purpose. So many trifle with that imperial 
attribute of our nature called the will, with 
the result that it becomes broken down or 
paralyzed ; and they who have trifled become 
enervated and enslaved to their physical feel- 
ings and desires. But to thoroughly believe 
God, and to make his promises a part of our 
very life, is to make the will like adamant. 

4. He acted promptly. The hesitating sol- 
dier never makes a good soldier. Alexander 
the Great, when asked the secret of his suc- 
cess, answered, “ By not delaying ;” and Na- 
poleon said, “Every moment lost gives op- 

5 


66 Tuer Victory Tuite 


portunity for misfortune.” Promptness has 
won many a battle where delay would have 
been certain defeat. When we know where 
the path of duty lies, to hesitate to walk in it 
always gives the enemy of the soul the ad- 
vantage. When we become conscious of any 
sin in the life, it is folly to delay getting rid of 
it. When the serpent fastened itself upon 
Paul’s hand in Malta, he did not say, “ Now I 
must shake it off gradually.” That would 
have been folly. He shook it off at once. We 
must do that when sin fastens itself upon our 
lives. Delay courts defeat and death. 

5. He had confidence in God. That will 
make any mana hero. With a consciousness 
that God is with him a man can fight alone 
and chase a thousand. Elijah trusted God, 
and, alone defied the prophets of Baal. Martin 
Luther trusted God and defied the whole Ro- 
man hierarchy. John Knox trusted God and 
defied the wicked queen. When a man comes 
to see that God is with him, then he knows 
that one imperial legion is mightier than all 
hell’s hosts. 

And we need courage. 

1. To make the best of life. Joshua believed 
the land could be conquered no matter how 
great the difficulties. And difficulties always 


Tue Victory or CourRAGE. 67 


vanish before true courage. Many young peo- 
ple find themselves confronted by barriers that 
seem to defy progress to the goal of their 
highest ambition for usefulness. The lack of 
education, and the lack of means to secure an 
education, and the lack of helpful friends are 
often barriers in the way. But courage will 
overcome the obstacles. 

Dr. Russell H. Conwell tells about a poor 
girl who made her living by weaving. While 
at her work she made up her mind to be a 
physician. She began to study. Many ob- 
stacles appeared in her way. Her Christian 
courage overcame them. She had passed only 
to the tenth grade in the public schools. But 
in a few years that young woman was grad- 
uated as a physician, and she now fills a place 
of great usefulness and blessing. 

2. To confess our sins. It is not necessary 
to publish all our meanness to the world, but 
when we have sinned against a fellow man it 
becomes our duty to confess that wrong to the 
person wronged and make restitution. And 
there is nothing in all the world that is more 
indicative of nobility of character than a read- 
iness to confess our sins, and show a spirit of 
true penitence. Yet so many fail here. Dr. 
J. G. K. McClure well says: “The man whe 


68 Tue Victory Lirs. 


having sinned conquers all the passion and 
pride of his soul and becomes a sweet, true, 
pure penitent is a victor over whom angels 
rejoice. Thousands of men who have made a 
success in their own field of labor fail to win 
life’s best victories because they never bow 
before God and say, ‘ Lord, be merciful to me 
a sinner.’ They are as stout-hearted as the 
Pharisee, and as self deceived. They forget 
the bitternesses they have cherished toward 
their fellow-men, they overlook all the omis- 
sions of goodness that have marked their lives, 
they do not consider how terrible is their 
present and their past ingratitude to God for 
all his goodness to them, and so they lack that 
gentlest, most beautiful, and most exalting 
virtue of penitence.” 

3. To be true to Christ. “ What would Jesus 
have me do?” would be a good motto for every 
young Christian. In these days of compromise 
in business life, and social life, we need men 
and women whose fidelity to Christ will be 
unswerving. And we have some. There are 
Joshuas who would lose a right hand, or a 
right eye, rather than deny their Lord. A 
Christian wholesale merchant, who had been 
taking an active part in a temperance cam- 
paign, was confronted by the agent of a cer- 


Tue Victory or CovurRaGE. 69 


tain retail firm who informed him that unless 
he would cease his temperance crusade this 
retail firm must withdraw their trade. , The 
wholesale merchant looked the agent straight 
in the eye as he said, “You go and tell your 
firm that my goods are for sale, and not my 
principles.” William E. Dodge, the great phi- 
lanthropist, was at one time a member of a 
railway corporation that proposed to run Sun- 
day trains. Mr. Dodge objected, and, when he 
saw he was in the hopeless minority, he said, 
“Well, gentlemen, you can run Sunday trains, 
and you can put a banner on every engine 
with the inscription, ‘We violate the law of 
God for the dividends,’ but, as for me, I am 
out of it.” And he at once withdrew from 
the company. We need a whole generation of 
men in business life, and women in social life, 
who will be always uncompromising in their 
fidelity to Christ. 

4. To rebuke sin. When Joshua stood be- 
tween Ebal and Gerizim, and had drawn that 
wonderful picture of God’s goodness and faith- 
fulness, he said then to the people, “ Now you 
may serve other gods,” “but as for me and my 
house, we will serve the Lord.” Then the 
people answered, “God forbid that we should 
forsake the Lord to serve other gods.” Then 


70 Tue Victory Lire. 


Joshua rebuked them, declaring that they had 
sinned and gone after other gods, and that 
unless they would put away these strange 
gods, God would not forgive them. 

It is not always easy to speak out against 
sin, and warn the people. Even in these days 
it often means reproach. And many people 
find it easier to let the devil have his way than 
to oppose him. But unrelenting, eternal hos. 
tility toward all forms of sin is the only con- 
sistent attitude for the follower of Christ, 
whether in pulpit or in pew. We need to 
have more of the spirit of the Old Testament 
prophets who dared rebuke iniquity, and who 
flamed with a quenchless zeal for righteousness. 
Rowland Hill used to say that there are some 
preachers who treat popular sins “as a donkey 
mumbles a thistle—wery cautiously.” A fear 
to offend, or provoke opposition or criticism, 
has robbed many a man of his usefulness. In 
a certain Eastern city may be seen a weather- 
vane representing Gabriel, with long, flowing 
robes and trumpet in hand. But the strange 
thing about this Gabriel is that he always 
appears blowing with the wind. This age 
needs men who will dare to blow agaist the 
winds of the world’s ways and fashions, if they 
be contrary to a useful, consistent Christian 


Tue Vicrory or Covracz. 71 


life. St. Chrysostom is said to have had a 
vision in which he saw the altar rails crowded 
with angels listening to the sermon. And if 
we could always preach, and teach, and live 
with an open heaven before us, how quickly 
the hosts of sin would be defeated, and Christ 
would be enthroned! 

5. To win our dear ones to Christ. There 
are some who are dear to us who might have 
been won to Christ ere now had we only had 
courage to win them. But instead of helping 
them to the Savior, we so often compromise 
- with them in sin, and those whom we should 
have won lose their confidence in the sincerity 
of our Christian profession. A woman came 
to her pastor one day to ask him to pray for 
her husband, but on the following Saturday 
night she left the revival-meeting and went 
with her husband to a ball. Let no one sup- 
pose that that woman could bring her husband 
to Christ. When we are living a consistent 
life ourselves, it is much easier to have courage 
to help others to a better life. There are mul- 
titudes who might be saved could we talk with 
them frankly and lovingly about the most im- 
portant interest of life. Dr. J. W. Chapman 
says that when he was in college another stu- 
deat asked permission to room with him. 


72 Tue Victory Lire. 


After they had been together for nearly two 
years, his room-mate said, “Why have you 
never spoken to me about my soul?’ Said Mr. 
Chapman: “I did not know you wanted me 
to speak to you upon this subject.” “Why,” 
said the young man, “for that very purpose I 
came to room with you. I knew you were a 
Christian, and I wanted some one to talk to 
me about my soul. I thought you would, but 
you have never said a word.” Young Chap- 
man could not help him then. Another won 
him to Christ. 


WEEK 7. 
THE VICTORY OF ZEAL. 


Cuaracter Stupy: Elijah. 


Memory Verse: Whatsoever thy hand find- 
eth to do, do it with thy might. (Eccl. ix, 10.) 


President Roosevelt, speaking at a Bible So- 
ciety meeting, told a story connected with the 
ministry of Dr. Adams, at one time pastor of 
the Madison Square Presbyterian Church, New 
York, which Church Mr. Roosevelt attended 
when a boy. Dr. Adams had a little grandson, 
and it was known that the boy was very much 
afraid to enter the big church alone. The 
family seemed unable to discover the reason 
for his fear. One day, however, Dr. Adams 
went into the church, and took the boy with 
him. The little fellow held tightly to his 
grandfather’s hand, and gazed about anxiously 
as they walked up the long aisle. On reaching 
the pulpit, the boy said, “Grandpa, where is 
the zeal?’ “The what?” asked Dr. Adams. 
“The zeal?” repeated the little fellow; “why, 

78 


94 Tur Viocrory Lire. 


don’t you know?’—‘The zeal of thine own 
house hath eaten me up.’” Then it dawned 
upon the pastor that this little fellow, having 
heard that passage of Scripture quoted, had 
concluded that the “zeal” was some hideous 
monster which haunted the inside of a church. 
The President thought that the zeal would 
never eat up some Church members, and, if it 
did, it would find thin picking on their spir- 
itual bones. 

Life is essential to zeal; and zeal, to enthu- 
siasm. When the Church has lost her enthu- 
siasm, she has lost her life. “Fervent in spirit,” 
said Paul; literally, “ boiling in spirit.” And 
all great moral and religious movements have 
been characterized by this fervency, this in- 
tense enthusiasm. Look at Pentecost. What 
enthusiasm was there! what zeal for souls! 
Study the spirit of the martyrs, and the re- 
formers, and the Covenanters, and the Wes- 
leyans. Indeed, in all the world’s realms of 
achievement, nothing great is ever accom- 
plished without enthusiasm. The tendency of 
this cold, critical age of doubt is to discourage 
religious enthusiasm. Some good people are 
afraid of revivals where anything like emotion 
is manifested. But the emotions that create 
enthusiasm are God-given, and are to be culti- 
vated. There can be no great revival that 


Tue Victory or ZEAL. 75 


does not appeal to, and move through, the 
emotions, as well as the intellect and will. 
And God pity the Church that discourages 
enthusiasm! There will not be enough zeal in 
that Church to win one soul to Christ. Ina 
certain city is a Church of six hundred mem- 
bers, where, in two whole years, not a single 
soul has been converted. The pastor discour- 
ages emotion, and emphasizes intellectuality 
and culture. The services are cold and formal, 
and the pews, for the most part, empty. Such 
a Church has only a name to live. 

To be sure, there is a zeal which is not ac- 
cording to knowledge, and which is fruitful of 
fanaticism, wild fire, vulgarity, and vagaries of 
many kinds. Of this let us beware. “For I 
bear them record,” said the apostle, “that they 
have a zeal of God, but not according to knowl- 
edge.” One fruit of the Spirit is love; and 
“love doth not behave itself unseemly.” When 
people are led into ridiculous and repellent 
conduct, it is not the Holy Spirit who leads. 
The spirit of darkness, the delusions of a dis- 
ordered brain, or a zeal not according to knowl- 
edge, is responsible. 

There were some prominent points in Elijah’s 
character, a brief study of which may help us 
to a more intelligent zeal for Christ. 


76 Tuer Victory Lirr. 


1. Singleness of aim. He had one work— 
to awaken Israel from her sin and lethargy, 
and thus to glorify God. All his efforts were 
directed toward this goal. Many Christian 
workers scatter too much to be eminently use- 
ful. They try to do many things, and do 
nothing well. Their aim is divided. They 
can not be depended upon for efficient service. 
Their work is always only half done. The 
pastor who is afflicted with many such helpers 
is to be pitied. His work will be continually 
hindered. Paul said, “This one thing I do.” 
He concentrated. He persevered. So must 
we, if our lives would tell for God and for 
humanity. 

2. Fearlessness of spirit. Three times Eli- 
jah speaks to wicked Ahab with a marvelous 
fearlessness and directness. His are no hon- 
eyed words nor fawning apology for truth. He 
is God’s messenger, and what cares he for what 
men may say about him, or doto him? David’s 
words might well have been spoken by Elijah, 
“In God have I put my trust, I will not be 
afraid: what can man do unto me?’ What 
can a half-hearted or vacillating man do? No- 
body will be inspired and helped by him toa 
better life. Nobody will believe in him. But 
the man with a fearless spirit—the dead-in- 


Tus Victory or ZEAL. 77 


earnest man—will overcome all obstacles, 
create confidence, revive courage, and lead 
others on to success ? 

3. Unbounded confidence in God. Only once 
did Elijah’s spirit fail. Then he sought the 
wilderness, and there, under the desert shrub, 
and afterwards on the side of lonely Horeb, 
God taught him that his call was to work, and 
not to flight. And did we always trust our 
Heavenly Father, we would never forsake the 
post of duty, nor turn cowards upon the 
world’s great battlefield. Instead, we would 
be valiant in the fight, and scorn to compro- 
mise with the world. 

Now, true Christian zeal will manifest itself: 

1. In an untiring opposition to all forms of 
sin. Elijah was “zealous for the Lord of 
hosts.” And when tidings came across the 
Jordan that the wicked Jezebel had thrown 
down the altars of the Lord, and had slain the 
prophet, it was time for Elijah to act. He 
hated idolatry, and he dared to stand single 
handed to stem its tide. There is a loud call 
to-day for men like Elijah who will dare to op- 
pose perpetrators of evil and arraign them at 
the bar of God. In his old age, Mr. Wesley 
said: “Near fifty years ago a great and good 
man, Dr. Potter, then archbishop of Canterbury, 


78 | Tue Viorory Lirs. 


gave me an advice for which I have ever since 
had occasion to bless God: ‘If you desire to be 
extensively useful, do not spend your time and 
strength in contending for or against such 
things as are of a disputable nature, but in tes- 
tifying against open and notorious vice, and in 
prompting real spiritual holiness.’ ” 

And yet before we undertake to rebuke evil 
we should be sure to have such an unction of 
the Spirit of God that we will do it with such 
wisdom and tactfulness as Jesus would do it. 

2. In an earnest effort to save souls. The 
zeal of the disciples on the day of Pentecost 
resulted in the salvation of three thousand. It 
was not Peter’s sermon alone that produced 
such marvelous results, but the effort of a 
praying, spirit-filled Church. Doubtless, at the 
close of the sermon, every member of that first 
Christian Church went here and there, up and 
down the thronging streets, speaking to the 
people privately, and leading them to Christ. 
They all became personal evangels to the 
unsaved. 

Some good people spend a great deal of zeal in 
a selfish way. They meet together, and enjoy 
themselves in song and testimony, but do little 
to save the perishing ones all about them. A 
young man, a medical student, complained that 


Tuer Viorory or ZEAL. 79 


while his father was a member of the Church, 
and always made much demonstration in class- 
meeting, and in times of revival, yet had never 
frankly and lovingly talked to him about his 
soul. 

3. In love and fidelity to the Church. Any 
zeal that leads people to turn their backs upon, 
and rail at, the Church of Jesus Christ, is not 
Christian zeal. It is of the pit. “Christ loved 
the Church, and gave himself for it 
that he might present it to himself a glorious 
Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such 
thing; but that it should be holy and without 
blemish.” True love for Christ will manifest 
itself in love for his Church. And that will 
mean fidelity to all the means of grace, and to 
the men who are sent of God to minister in 
holy things. They who possess this precious 
gift of Christian enthusiasm will be the most 
devoted attendants upon the public services, 
and will be the faithful pastor’s most loyal 
supporters. 

4. In enthusiasm for the Bible. We need, 
in these days, a new enthusiasm for the Word 
of God. Too many preachers and Sunday- 
school teachers are using the Bible as if it 
needed apology. And their defense is of such 
a nature as to sow unbelief. They “handle 


80 Tue Victory Lire. 


the Word of God deceitfully.” They bring 
discredit upon the very message they are sup- 
posed to proclaim. Such can never have a real 
enthusiasm for the Book of books. We must 
believe the Bible with all the heart, and accept 
it as the inspired Word of God—the God 
breathed Word—for such it claims to be. It is 
God’s Word. It is the message from’ heaven. 
“very Scripture inspired of God is also profit- 
able for teaching, for reproof, for correction, 
for instruction which is in righteousness.” 
(2 Tim. ii, 16.) “For the prophecy came not 
in the old time by the will of man: but holy 
men of God spake as they were moved by the 
Holy Ghost.” (2 Pet. i, 21.) The man who 
believes the Bible with all his heart will speak 
words that glow with intensity and courage, 
while the man who thinks he must apologize 
for some parts of the Holy Scriptures will have 
no power to lead men and women into a life of 
victory. Whether he be a minister, or a col- 
lege professor, or a Sunday-school teacher, his 
words will become wearisome and will lack 
the sacred fire that touches hearts and glorifies 
lives. The most brilliant scholarship will avail 
nothing unless it is accompanied with an un- 
wavering assurance as to the truth of God’s 
Word, and a glowing zeal for its study. 


WEEK 8. 
THE VICTORY OF SELF-SACRIFICE. 


CuHaracter Stupy: Barnabas. 


Memory Verszs: If any man will come after 
me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross 
and follow me. (Matt. xvi, 24.) He that find- 
eth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his 
life for my sake shall find it. (Matt. x, 39.) 


The glory of the Athenian was the literature 
of his people. The glory of the Roman was 
the martial spirit of his nation. But the glory 
of the true Christian is his likeness to his 
Master. The same traits of character must be 
reproduced in him. And no trait of character 
is more noticeable in the life of the Son of 
God than his self-sacrifice. Every day of his 
earthly life was full of self-denial for others. 
And he said, “If any man will come after me, 
let him deny himself, and take up his cross and 
follow me.” Jesus taught that, to live the 
Christ-life, one must put selfish desire and am- 
bition under foot, and devote the whole being 

8 81 


82 Tue Victory Lirs. 


to God. And he taught, too, that this may be 
done in any honorable vocation in life, and that 
the life will be larger and truer and nobler be- 
cause of such a consecration. Our home, our 
occupation, our possessions, our talents, our 
comforts, must all be brought to the cross. 
Then, when the old self-life is crucified and 
put behind us, we begin to live the new, blessed 
life of entire surrender. “He that loseth his 
life shall keep it unto life eternal.” 

Barnabas is a beautiful example of self-sacri- 
fice. He gave up all to follow Christ. To 
trace and study the brief sketches of his life, 
is to get glimpses into the life of a master 
Christian. By grace, he had gotten the victory 
over self, and lived the life devoted to Christ. 
When we have won the victory over self, then 
many gracious results will follow in the life. 

1. Persecution for Christ's sake will be joy- 
Sully endured. See how the early Christians 
suffered for their Master’s sake! They went | 
to the fiery stake and the den of wild beasts 
with a shout of triumph on their lips. They 
remembered the Savior’s words: “ Blessed are 
they that are persecuted for righteousness’ 
sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and 
persecute you, and shall say all mann of 


Tue Victory or Se.Fr-SacrIirIce. 83 


evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice, 
and be exceeding glad: for great is your re- 
ward in heaven.” And in these days the 
young Christian must often have to meet the 
jeers of those who are still in bondage to 
Satan. But in the suffering of persecution will 
be developed the strength of Christian char- 
acter. “The trying of your faith,” says the 
apostle, “worketh patience” — that is, endu- 
rance. Happy, therefore, is he who patiently 
and sweetly suffers for Jesus’ sake, for out of 
the suffering will come the glory and strength 
of Christian manhood and womanhood; and, 
by and by, will come the crown and the 
kingdom. 

2. Evil associates will be given up. “ Where- 
fore, come out from among them, and be ye 
separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the 
unclean thing ; and I will receive you, and will 
be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my 
sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” 
(2 Cor. vi, 17, 18.) Many young people have 
lost their souls rather than give up their old 
companions in sin. Jesus said, “If thy right 
hand offend thee, cut it off;’ meaning, not to 
literally cut off the hand, but, for his sake and 
our own good, to break with every association 
that hinders our spiritual growth, or dishonors 


84 Tue Viotory Lire. 


our Lord, even though it be as dear to us as 
the right hand. “For what fellowship hath 
righteousness with unrighteousness? and what 
communion hath light with darkness? And 
what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what 
part hath he that believeth with an infidel? 
And what agreement hath the temple of God 
with idols? for ye are the temple of the living 
God.” (2 Cor. vi, 14-16.) It is said that 
ninety-five out of every hundred arrested for 
crime to-day admit that evil associates led 
them astray. Three-fourths of the domestic 
infelicity in this country is a direct result of 
young people disregarding this plain admoni- 
tion and warning of Scripture. The spirit of 
self-denial and love for the Master will lead us 
to give up every evil association for his sake. 
3. Injurious amusements will be gladly sur- 
rendered. When the life is entirely given to 
Christ, the itching for demoralizing amuse- 
ments will be removed. The desire for Christ- 
like character and Christlike service will 
crowd out the world-spirit. But in the lives of 
many professing Christians the world-spirit 
still holds sway, and the barrenness of soul and 
lack of spiritual perception and enjoyment 
may often easily be traced to indulgence in 
some questionable amusement. Some one says 


Tuer Victory or SELF-SAcRIFICE. 85 


that there are Church members much like 
Lazarus when he came forth from the tomb. 
He had been raised from the dead, but he was 
still bound hand and foot with the grave- 
clothes of the old life. There are many pro- 
fessing Christians who still wear the garments 
of the old worldly life, and have no liberty, 
no power, no victory. There are two very 
emphatic reasons why Christians should re- 
nounce certain amusements: 

(a) Because they hinder spiritual growth. As 
the love for worldly pleasure increases, the 
love for and appreciation of spiritual things 
decreases. This is an invariable rule. Oc- 
casionally some young person is heard to say 
of the theater, or the dance, or the whist 
party, “O, what’s the harm?’ That is always 
an indication of a low spiritual life. Rather 
let us say, “What’s the good,” or “Can I 
glorify Christ in doing this?” John Wesley’s 
mother once wrote him in college: “ Would 
you judge of the lawfulness or unlawfulness of 
a pleasure, take this rule: Whatever weakens 
your reason, impairs the tenderness of your 
conscience, obscures your sense of God, or 
takes off the relish of spiritual things; what- 
ever increases the authority of your body over 
your mind—that to you is sin.” 


86 Tux Victory Lire. 


(b) Because they make others to stumble. Dr. 
L. W. Munhall says that before he entered the 
ministry he went to a theater one night to 
please a visiting friend. Next day he meta 
young man to whom he had frequently spoken 
about the Christian life. He invited him again 
to be a Christian. But the young man looked 
at him and said, “I never want you to speak 
to me on the subject again. I saw you in the 
theater last night, and I have little confidence 
in aman who professes to be a Christian and 
was found in a questionable place of amuse- 
ment.” “I never won him,” said Dr. Munhall. 
“He gradually drifted away from the Church 
and from Christ and I met him in the West, a 
hopeless wreck.” 

During a revival-meeting in a certain city 
church, a lady who was a member of the 
Church came and knelt at the altar of prayer 
as a penitent. When the pastor inquired why 
she had come, she said, “ Well, yesterday, I 
asked my husband to come with me to Church, 
and he said, ‘No thank you, I am not accus- 
tomed to go to Church with gamblers” He 
knew that I had been playing whist for prizes. 
His answer startled me and pained me, and I 
have made up my mind that if I ever see my 


Tue Vicrory or Setr-SAcRIFICE. 87 


husband converted I must get right myself.” 
In another city a young man, a confirmed 
gambler, confessed that he had gotten the 
fascination for gambling at the whist parties 
in his own mother’s home. Some parents will 
have a dreadful record to meet at the judg- 
ment bar of God. Paul said, “If meat make 
my brother to offend, I will eat no meat while 
the world standeth.” Paul would sacrifice his 
personal liberty for others’ sake. And in this 
he showed the spirit of his Master who con- 
stantly denied himself to save others. 

4. We shall not be found seeking the easy 
places in the Master's service. We shall gladly 
endure hardship for Christ’s sake and for 
others’ sake. Ministers in good health will- 
not be seeking easy appointments and “soft 
snaps.” Sunday-school teachers will not com- 
plain about the drudgery of the work. Any 
service for Christ will be a privilege. We 
shall begin to see that to be sent of God to 
difficult fields of labor, and difficult places of 
service, is to be highly honored of our King. 
He may be preparing us for some glorious 
mission in another world in the years to come, 
and the self sacrifice here is but for the testing 
and the developing of our characters, fitting us 


88 Tue Viorory Lire. 


for realms where we shall be kings and priests 
unto God. So Jesus said, “He that findeth 
his life shall lose it; but he that loseth it for 
my sake shall find it.” 

5. We shall acknowledge and remember our 
stewardship. Our earthly possessions will be 
held not as our own, but as the Lord’s, and we 
shall seek to use them for his glory. “Bar- 
nabas, having a field, sold it, and brought the 
money, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.” In 
the early Church we find the spirit of so- 
cialism—Christian socialism. Asa rule, many 
of the men who pose as socialists to-day are 
not those who are dividing their own goods 
with those who have none; but are always 
aspiring “to appropriate to themselves a part 
of the goods of others,” and there is in their 
lives little of the spirit of self sacrifice. 

When Charles G. Finney was holding a 
series of meetings in Rochester, N. Y., he was 
met in the vestibule of the building one eve- 
ning by a noted lawyer of that city who 
handed him a paper, saying, “ I deliver this to 
you as a servant of Jesus Christ.” Mr. Finney 
took the paper, and when he had opportunity 
to examine it, found it to be a quit claim deed, 
regularly signed and sealed, whereby this law- 


Tue Victory or SELF-SACRIFICE. 8Y 


yer had turned over to Jesus Christ every- 
thing he possessed ; his home, his family, his 
money, his time, his talents, his all. His sub- 
sequent life attested the sincerity of his conse- 
cration. The only satisfactory way to hold 
earthly possessions is to acknowledge the Di- 
vine ownership, and the human stewardship 
in all earthly things. 


WEEK 9. 
THE VICTORY OF SUFFERING. 


CHARACTER Stupy: Job. 


Memory Verses: If we suffer, we shall also 
reign with Him. (2 Tim. ii, 12.) 

For our light affiiction, which is but for a 
moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory. (2 Cor. iv, 17.) 

In the world ye shall have tribulation: but 
be of good cheer; I have overcome the world. 
(John xvi, 33.) 


Christ is peerless in the realm of suffering. 
There is none like him. Read that fifty-third 
chapter of Isaiah, and behold the man of sor- 
rows. And he has glorified suffering. It has 
become a royal insignia of his kingdom, for 
“unto you it is given in the behalf of Christ, 
not only to believe on him, but also to suffer 
for his sake” (Phil. i, 29); and “if we suffer, 
we shall also reign with him” (2 Cor. ii, 12). 
Christ triumphed through suffering. “It be- 
came Him for whom are all things, and by 

90 


Tue Victory or SuFFERING. Y1 


whom are all things, in bringing many sons 
unto glory, to make the Captain of their salva- 
tion perfect through sufferings.” (Heb. ii, 10.) 
There is an infinite pathos in the fact of the 
loneliness of the Supreme Sufferer. We do 
not suffer alone. We have friends who care 
for us and love us. And we have a Savior’s 
presence and comfort, as had the martyrs of 
old. But Christ suffered alone. “I have trod- 
den the wine press alone; and of the people 
there was none with me.” Even his disciples 
forsook him and fled. Job was, in this respect, 
a type of Christ. There was a sense in which 
he suffered alone. He was denied even the 
love and sympathy of his wife. But he had 
the presence of a living Redeemer, and, in con- 
fidence, he could say, “Though He slay me, 
yet will I trust him.” Through him Job finally 
won the victory. And we may have the vic- 
tory. The pathway of suffering may be for us 
the triumphal way. It may be dark and lonely 
now, and we may not be able to understand 
why it should be so. But some sweet day, 


**Above the rest this note shall swell, 
My Jesus has done all things well.” 


Now let us learn: 
1. That suffering may be a precious means 


92 Tue Vicrory Lirs. 


of grace. To some God says, “I have chosen 
thee in the furnace of affliction.” Many a life 
has been sweetened and purified and ennobled 
by sorrow and pain. Had a piano nerves where 
it has strings, the tuning process would be a 
painful one. But only when it is properly 
tuned is it responsive to the sensitive touch of 
the great musician. So we need to be brought 
into tune with the Infinite. And often the 
tuning process may be painful, but we are be- 
ing made responsive to the Divine touch. It 
is often in these hours of pain that we get new 
visions of the larger and better life. Dr. 
Gunsaulus, the great Chicago preacher, has 
been a great sufferer. This is his testimony: 
“JT have suffered an inch off my leg, but if I 
had to suffer it all again, and, in addition, to 
crawl across the continent on my hands and 
knees in order to get the conception of truth 
and life which has come to me through this 
discipline, I would gladly do it.” Let us not 
resent, then, whatever tears and suffering and 
struggle may come to us. They are working 
out for us an exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory. When John saw the shining throng 
before the throne, he was told that they came 
out of great tribulation and had washed their 
robes and made them white in the blood of the 


Tue Victory or SUFFERING. 93 


Lamb. Often the best that is in us can not be 
brought out until we enter the furnace of afflic- 
tion. Look at Joseph. How he trod the path- 
way of suffering in preparation for the premier- 
ship of Egypt! In slavery, in prison, in severe 
temptation, the highest type of manhood was 
developed. It was so, too, with Moses. For 
forty years he was in humiliation, a fugitive, 
and a humble sheep herder. Yet here Moses 
was in training for lofty services. There is an 
interesting story of a great singer. Her praise 
was on the lips of all. They said, when she 
sang, “It is beautiful!” But a man who heard 
her said, “I wish I could break her heart!”—a 
ruthless wish, to be sure. But the time came 
when her heart was broken. She married a 
worthless husband. He brought her to penury 
and sorrow. She never sang in public after 
her marriage, save at a concert given for char- 
ity. But when she did sing, it was more than 
a mere vocal exhibition. There was such pa- 
thos and soul-moving power in every word that 
people wept and shouted. Before, the people 
had only perceived the beauty in her singing; 
now, they felt the power. 

2. That affliction may be the means of salva- 
tion to the unsaved. God does not send afflic- 
tion. God sometimes permits affliction; but 


94 Tue Victory Lire. 


always for our good. Many a man would 
never have been saved had it not been that 
the loud knocker of affliction was heard on his 
heart’s door, warning him of his danger. A 
brilliant lawyer pointed to a little pair of shoes 
on the mantel in his home, and said, “Until 
the little feet that once filled those shoes went 
to walk on the streets of gold, I never prayed 
or believed in Jesus Christ. Now he is my 
All in all.” A woman who had lost her hear- 
ing, but who, previous to her affliction, had 
led a worldly life, said, “I would not have my 
hearing back for the whole world, if it meant 
that I must live the old life again, for through 
the loss of my hearing I have been awakened 
to see the miserable life that I was living, and 
to give myself to God.” And a thousand times 
better that God should permit some affliction 
to come into our life than that we should go 
stumbling down the steep road to perdition 
and be lost forever. 

3. That however great the suffering, God will 
gwe grace to sustain. “My grace is sufficient 
for thee,” is his promise. Every suffering one 
may hear him say, “The eternal God is thy 
refuge, and underneath are the everlasting 
arms.” With such a promise, what sorrow or 
persecution can hurt us? 


Tue Victory or SUFFERING. 95 


Edward Payson Hammond was once speak- 
ing before a convention of the Colored Baptist 
Association of New England, when he told the 
story of a poor Negro boy, who, in the days of 
slavery, had learned to read from an old-fash- 
ioned spelling-book, given him by his master’s 
son. Later, he secured a New Testament, and, 
through reading it, was converted. Then he 
began to go to the neighboring plantations on 
Sundays, and read and talk to the colored 
people about Jesus. His master, who was a 
wicked man, heard of it, and said to him, 
“Jack, I hear you have been away preaching.” 
“Yes, Massa, I must tell sinners how Jesus 
died on the cross for us.” ‘“ Well, Jack, if I 
ever hear of you going off preaching again, I 
will tie you to that tree, and flog all the re- 
ligion out of you,” said the cruel man. Jack 
knew that what his master said he would do; 
but next Sunday he was on the plantation, 
preaching again. Next day his master almost 
killed him, but on the following Sunday, unable 
to stand erect because of his bruised back, Jack 
was again talking to the colored people about 
Jesus, and saying, “ Massa may kill me to- 
morrow; but, if he does, I will not suffer more 
than the Savior did for me when he died on 
the cross.” Another flogging followed on Mon- 


96 Tuer Victory Lire. 


day; but next Sunday Jack was preaching 
again. Next day, when the cruel master raised 
his whip to strike the boy, he hesitated, seeing 
the back all lacerated and scarred. “What do 
you do it for, Jack?” he said. “ Nobody pays 
you for it, and you know I will whip you.” 
“O, Massa,” said the boy, “I’s going to take 
all these scars up to Jesus, and show him how 
faithful I’s been, ’cause he loved me, and died 
on the cross for you and me, Massa.” The 
whip fell from the Master’s hand as he ordered 
the boy to the cotton-field. About three o'clock 
a messenger came running, saying: “ Massa’s 
dyin’! Come quick, come quick, Jack!” Jack 
found his master lying on the floor of his room, 
crying: “I’m sinking down to hell! O, 
Jack, pray for me!” That afternoon he was 
converted, and a few days later gave Jack his 
freedom papers, saying, “Go and preach the 
gospel wherever you will, and the Lord’s bless- 
ing go with you!” 

When Mr. Hammond had finished this nar- 
rative, an old colored man rose, and in trem- 
ulous tones said, “I am Jack, and Mr. Ham- 
mond can not tell you what I suffered, but 
God helped me to pray for my master until I 
saw him converted.” 


WEEK 10. 
THE VICTORY OF PURITY. 


Cuaracter Stupr: Joseph. 


Memory Verses: Keep thyself pure. (1 Tim. 
v, 22.) Submit yourselves therefore to God. 
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 
(James iv, 7.) 


We are in a sinful world, with the destroyer 
of all that is pure always on our track, and yet 
we may live stainless lives. Jesus Christ has 
shown us the way, and will give us the vic- 
tory. He was tempted like as we are, but he 
overcame. He taught us that we must not 
rush into temptation, but avoid it. Many are 
trapped by sin because they have dallied with 
sin. No man has any right to willfully walk 
into temptation. There is only one condition 
when we must not flee from temptation, and 
that is when it lies across the pathway of duty. 
Then we are to “put on the whole armor of 
God,” and fight it, and overcome it. Jesus 

7 97 


98 Tue Victory Lire. 


gave no quarter to sin; neither should we. 
We are to “resist the devil.” 

And he who has abandoned his life to Jesus 
Christ will have strength to do this. Over- 
coming grace is promised. The divine Spirit, 
when he takes possession of us, will empower 
us so that victory shall be ours. 


And the Lion of Judah will break every chain, 
And give us the vict’ry again and again. 


There are in these days many enemies to 
purity of life. 

1. The modern theater. By its unreal life, 
by its jeers at temperance and religion, by its 
innuendo, and by its frivoluous treatment of 
the marriage relation, the theater is starting 
its thousands on the way to perdition. A 
prominent actor recently made the statement, 
that, next to the Church and the school, the 
theater was a vehicle of education and culture. 
Yes, forsooth! Education in crime! Culture in 
vice! Look at the pictures on the bill-boards 
which boys and girls stand and study—pic- 
tures of murder and bacchanalian riot. Look 
at the levity with which human life and the 
most sacred relations of the home are treated 
on the stage. This is education after the old 
Roman type. This is culture with a vengeance. 


Tue Victory or Puriry. 99 


This is a fine school for training in true man- 
hood and womanhood, where we look upon 
men and women dominated by the basest pas- 
sions, and where the vilest characters, reeking 
with crime and villainy, become stars and 
heroes and heroines. This is the school in 
which many young people are getting their 
ideas of life to-day, and the more of this edu- 
cation they acquire the less regard they have 
for the sanctity and purity of the home. 

Dr. J. M. Buckley gives five reasons why no 
young Christian should attend a theater: 1. 
The Churches are opposed toit. 2. The theater 
is opposed to the Churches. 3. Theplays,as a 
usual thing, are immoral. 4. The players, as a 
usual thing, are immoral. 5. No theater goer 
is an active soul winner. 

2. The modern dance. This is the favorite 
amusement of wicked men and women. Lib- 
erties are taken which would not be allowable 
under any other circumstances. And while to 
some the dance may have nothing harmful, 
yet there are multitudes whose lives are un- 
doubtedly turned into the ways of shame and 
death through its influences and associations. 

As a rule, when love for the dance increases, 
love for Christ and his work decreases; and 
no young Christian can afford to engage in 


100 Tur Victory Lire. 


any form of amusement that takes the keen 
edge off his spiritual appetite, and cools his 
love for the highest and best in Christian life 
and service. Nor can any disciple of Jesus 
Christ afford to dally with any pleasure that 
has been hurtful to the lives of so many others, 
and is so given over to the world loving, and 
sin loving in every community, as is the 
modern dance. 

3. The unrestrained imagination. “As he 
thinketh in his heart, so is he.” The devil 
traps multitudes of people through the im- 
agination by getting them to harbor unclean 
thoughts. And these thoughts, having been 
given possession of the mind, soon refuse to 
leave. An old man, who was the very picture 
of despair, said: “I have the scars of sin on 
me. In my young manhood I lived a wicked 
life, and now my mind is full of evil thoughts, 
and my imagination like a nest of unclean 
birds.” And we can scarcely conceive of a 
sight more pitiable than of that old man beg- 
ging to be saved from his evil thoughts. Only 
by letting the Spirit of God have the right of 
way in our hearts and thoughts in youth can 
we keep the imagination clean. In his letter 
to the Galatians, Paul says, “Walk in the Spirit, 
and ye shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.” 


Tue Victory or Porrry. 101 


4. Foul mouthed men are the enemies of 
purity. There are found in almost every com- 
munity men who stand on street corners, 
whose breath is foul with whisky and to- 
bacco, who tell filthy stories and use obscene 
language. These men are fiends in disguise. 
As the devil fish clouds the water all about it 
in a few seconds, so these men infect whole 
communities with their filthiness, and should 
be shunned as we would shun a deadly viper. 

There are three things which every young 
man and woman must do to know the victory 
of purity. 

1. Observe personal cleanliness. A daily bath 
would help many a man to fight against wrong, 
and to have high ideals. The observance of 
some of the old Jewish laws regarding phys- 
ical cleanliness would be taking a long step 
toward purity of life. The great Joseph Par- 
ker, of London, once gave some young people 
some good hygienic advice as follows: ‘“ Wash 
yourself! Is your face yourself? Or if you 
even include your neck, is that yourself? 
When I say wash yourself, I mean yourself— 
not merely your brow and two inches on each 
side of your nose, but really and properly your- 
self, from the crown of your head to the sole 
of your feet, and do it every morning; not now 


102 Tue Victory Lirs. 


and then according to the temperature, but as 
regularly as the morning comes.” 

That eminent Scotch physician, Dr. Aber- 
nethy, was once visited by a man who wanted 
the doctor to prescribe for him. After exam- 
ination, the doctor said: “ Have you a large 
tub at home?” “Yes.” “Then put it in a room. 
Fill it two-thirds full with water, as hot as you 
can bear it. Get in. Take a bar of yellow 
soap; rub it over your body. Presently you 
will see a white foamy substance come all over 
you. Rub thoroughly, and wash off the lather. 
Then rub dry with a towel. Repeat this twice 
a week.” “ Why doctor,” said the man, “ that 
sounds as if you were telling me to take a 
bath.” “Just so,” said the doctor. “My fee is 
five guineas. Good day.” 

2. Commit the life to God. His power can 
make us what we ought to be, and keep us. 
Dr. Talmage used to tell a story about John 
Newton, whose fame as a preacher is known 
to all. “While a profligate sailor on ship- 
board, in his dream, Newton thought that a 
being approached him and gave him a very 
beautiful ring, and put in upon his finger, and 
said to him: “ As long as you wear that ring 
you will be prospered; if you lose that ring 
you will be ruined.” In the same dream an- 


Tue Victory or Poriry. 103 


other personage appeared, and by a strange 
infatuation persuaded him to throw overboard 
that ring, and it sank into the sea. Then the 
mountains in sight were full of fire and the 
air was lurid with consuming wrath. While 
John Newton was repenting of his folly in 
having thrown overboard the treasure, an- 
other personage came through the dream, and 
told him he would plunge into the sea and 
bring that ring up if he desired it. He plunged 
into the sea and brought it up, and said to 
Newton, “ Here is that gem, but I think I will 
keep it for you, lest you lose it again;” and 
John Newton consented, and all the fire went 
out from the mountains, and all the signs of 
lurid wrath disappeared from the air, and 
John Newton said that he saw in his dream 
that that valuable gem was his soul, and that 
the being who persuaded him to throw it over- 
board was Satan, and that the one who plunged 
in and restored that gem, keeping it for him, 
was Christ.” 

3. Shun the appearance of evil. Do not 
dally with sin. Do not try to see how near 
you can go to the pit without falling in. There 
is an oft-told story of a gentleman who adver- 
tized for a coachman. To the first man who 
applied he said: “How near could you drive 


104 Tue Victory Lire. 


to the edge of a steep embankment without 
going over?” The man replied, “I could drive 
within six inches.” The next man was asked 
the same question, and replied, “Three inches, 
sir.’ The third replied, “I would keep as far 
from the edge as possible.” “You are en- 
gaged,” said the gentleman. 

After John B. Gough had been forty years 
a teetotaler, he said, “ Rather than eat a piece 
of mince pie flavored with brandy, I would cut 
off my right arm. I would no more touch it, 
knowing my physical and moral weakness for 
drink, than I would be willing to touch a 
lighted match to a keg of gunpowder.” And 
no man or woman can afford to dally with sin. 
“No compromise” must be our watchword if 
we would know the victory of purity. 


WEEK 11. 
THE VICTORY OF TEMPERANCE. 


Cuaracter Stupy: Daniel. 


Memory Verses: Whether therefore ye eat, 
or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the 
glory of God. (1 Cor. x, 31.) 

And every man that striveth for the mastery 
is temperate in all things. (1 Cor. ix, 25.) 


What a sad waste of precious gifts and op- 
portunities is everywhere apparent! What 
lives are squandered through following unholy 
appetites and passions! Let jails, and peniten- 
tiaries, and reformatories, and houses of refuge, 
bear witness. 

Robert Browning makes the old grammarian 
to spurn the thought of living until he had 
first learned how to live. But there are so few 
who learn how to live. See the multitudes 
who weakly yield to the temptations of appe- 
tite and lust, and go down into the whirlpool 
of destruction. And so subtle are these tempta- 

105 


106 Tur Victory Lirs. 


tions that unless the grace of God shall com- 
pass us about, we are in constant danger. 

If we would know the victory of temperance 
we must resolve to live at our best. To have 
any lower ideal is to court defeat. We shall 
surely be confronted by difficulties and dis- 
couragements. Every step of the way may be 
a conflict, but, doing our best, by the grace of 
God we shall get the victory. Under the 
supremest difficulties, men who have sought 
earthly honors have won them. The year be- 
fore his death, Robert Louis Stevenson wrote: 
“For fourteen years I have not had a day’s 
real health. I have wakened sick and gone to 
bed weary. I have written in bed, written 
in hemorrhages, written in sickness, written 
worn by coughing, written when my head 
swam for weakness. I am better now, and 
still few are the days when I am not in some 
physical distress. And the battle goes on—ill 
or well is a trifle, so as it goes. I was made 
for a contest, and the Powers have so willed 
that my battlefield should be this dingy, in- 
glorious one of the bed and the physic bottle. 
I would have preferred a place of trumpetings 
and the open air over my head. Still I have 
done my work unflinchingly.” And shall not 
we who seek an immortal crown, who are 


Tur Victory or TEMPERANCE. 107 


children of the Heavenly King, do our best in 
fighting life’s battles? 

But if we would do our best for Christ and 
humanity: 

1. We must not tolerate in our lwes any 
unholy appetite. The will must be strength. 
ened to resist evil appetites. “If thou be a 
man given to appetite,” said the writer of the 
Proverbs, “put a knife to thy throat;” that is, 
take heroic measures. Do not dally with an 
evil appetite, or an evil habit. Cut it off, even 
though it be like cutting off a right hand,— 
break with it at once. 

But there is many a man who has yielded 
so often to an evil appetite that he is now its 
slave. No human power can save him. In a 
great assembly-hall in a large city, the Holy 
Spirit had blessed the preacher’s message until 
intense conviction rested upon the people. In 
the after-meeting a man was seen to be sob- 
bing. When the minister spoke to him he 
said: “Do not ask me to sign the pledge. I 
have signed it thirty-six times. The last time 
I opened a vein in my arm and signed it with 
my own blood, but even that did not avail. Is 
there no deliverance from this awful curse?” 
he cried. Then the minister pointed him to 
Christ, and told him of his power to save. 


108 Tur Viorory Lirs. 


Seon the poor drunkard threw himself upon 
Christ’s grace and mercy and found deliver- 
ance from his chains. And there is help for 
every man who casts himself upon the strong 
arm of a living Savior. His own pledges and 
good resolutions may fail, but if he will submit 
himself to God, and absolutely trust Christ, he 
will speedily get the victory. 

2. We must put away even the doubtful 
things—the weights that hinder us. “Let us 
lay aside every weight,” said the apostle in his 
letter to the Hebrews. There are many things 
that may be weights, or hindrances, to our own 
spiritual progress, or to the progress of others. 
Often the weight consists of an acquired appe- 
tite for some opiate, or for tobacco. And ey- 
erybody should be familiar with the physical 
effects of narcotics and inebriants. Inevitable 
physical and mental weakness awaits those 
who become the slaves of these acquired appe- 
tites. The tobacco habit seems to be increasing 
among men to-day; and multitudes of boys 
and young men are having their physical 
health undermined and their blood poisoned 
through the use of cigarettes and tobacco. A 
man can not be at his best, either physically or 
spiritually, who becomes a slave to tobacco. 


Tue Viorory oF TEMPERANCE. 109 


Then, too, the wastefulness of the habit 
should be seriously considered. There is many 
times as much money puffed away in tobacco 
smoke every year as is given in a century by 
the largest Churches for the world’s evangeli- 
zation. A prominent business man in a certain 
city smoked four cigars a day. He discovered 
that he could buy a New Testament with the 
price of a cigar. So he gave up the cigars, 
and gave away four New Testaments every 
day. 

But let us learn now from Daniel some help- 
ful lessons in temperance. 

1. He was uncompromising. The temptation 
to compromise must have been strong in those 
early days of his captivity. When tempted to 
live the luxurious life, many things would 
seem to make it easy for Daniel to yield—his 
youth, the social customs, official rank, and ab- 
sence from home. But nothing moved him. 
“He purposed in his heart that he would not 
defile himself.’ Then, when he faced the 
lions’ den, he was only asked to suspend his 
prayers for thirty days. How easily that could 
have been done! But Daniel would sooner go 
thirty days without food than thirty days 
without prayer. There was absolutely no spirit 


110 Tue Victory Lire. 


of compromise in his nature. He would be 
true to God, no matter what men would say 
or do. We need a whole generation of Dan- 
iels to-day. . 

2. He was cheerful. Daniel was a captive, 
yet he never complained. There was no whin- 
ing nor grumbling about his lot. He would, 
by God’s grace, make the best of it. The 
habit of complaining grows on a man until he 
becomes a chronic growler. The skies soon 
come to appear always dark, and then it is an 
easy matter to yield to some evil appetite or 
passion. Let the man who would know the 
victory of temperance live much in the sun- 
shine. Let him practice cheerfulness; or, bet- 
ter, let him have so much of the sunshine of 
God’s love in his heart that cheerfulness will 
become a habit of his life. 

3. He was prayerful. It was his rule to ob- 
serve stated seasons for prayer. Nothing could 
turn him from this purpose, not even the lions’ 
den. By constant communion in prayer, he 
had come to live so near to God that he feared 
not the faces of men or lions. He could stand 
before Nebuchadnezzar, Belshazzar, or Darius, 
and rebuke iniquity, for he knew that God was 
with him. And his prayerful life made his 


Tur Victory or TEMPERANCE. 111 


public life incorruptible. The man who talks 
much with God in the secret place of prayer 
will be likely to live a clean life in any voca- 
tion in which he may serve. Prayer and tem- 
perance go hand in hand. If men would only 
keep their windows open toward heaven, how 
they would learn self-mastery ! 


WEEK 12. | 
THE VICTORY OF POWER. 


CHARACTER Stupy: Peter. 


Memory Verses: And ye shall receive power, 
after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; 
and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in 
Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, 
and unto the uttermost part of the earth. 
(Acts i, 8.) And with great power gave the 
apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord 
Jesus. (Acts iv, 33.) Be filled with the Spirit. 
(Eph. v, 18.) 


The crowning glory of the gospel dispen- 
sation is the presence and leadership of the 
Holy Spirit. He makes all other triumphs 
possible; he teaches how to pray; he inspires 
faith ; he sheds abroad the love of God in our 
hearts; he clothes with power. 

In the Old Testament days, now and again, 
God chose some man for eminent leadership. 
and the Holy Spirit made that man his temple. 
For instance, it is said in the Book of Judges. 

112 


Tur Victory or PowrEr. 113 


that the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; 
literally, “The Spirit clothed himself with 
Gideon.” In like manner the Spirit took pos- 
session of Moses, and Othniel, and Jephthah, 
and David, and Zechariah. But the promise 
was given of a day when the Spirit would be 
poured out “upon all flesh.” The time would 
come when, to all believers, would be given 
this precious gift. That promise was fulfilled 
at Pentecost. The entire waiting Church was 
filled, and to every one was given a tongue of 
fire. In the new Testament times, as to-day, 
men and women were possessed with evil spir- 
its. These evil spirits filled them and con- 
trolled them. But at Pentecost the Holy 
Spirit of God entered the lives of the disciples 
to fill them and control them just as surely 
and completely as the seven evil spirits had 
once controlled Mary of Magdala. He took 
possession of Peter, and he, who had been too 
cowardly to confess Christ before a maid, now 
fearlessly proclaimed him to the assembled 
multitudes. No more denial of his Lord. Peter 
now began to live the victory life. He faced 
that vast throng and-boldly preached Christ 
crucified. And not only was this marvelous 
change wrought in Peter, but “ they were all 
filled with the Holy Ghost.” 
8 


114 Tue Victory Lire. 


It is therefore the high privilege of every 
Christian to be Spirit-filled. Indeed, no man 
or woman can live the normal Christian life 
without the fullness of God’s Spirit, and the 
greatest need of the world to-day is for men 
and women in every vocation who are living 
the life of complete abandonment to the Spirit 
of God. A glorified Savior needs not only 
Spirit-filled ministers and missionaries, but 
Spirit-filled bankers, and lawyers, and physi- 
cians, and teachers, and students, and carpen- 
ters, and blacksmiths, and railway men, and 
housewives,—men and women in every field of 
the world’s labor who have become the temples 
of his Spirit. 

A young preacher called on Hiram Gough, 
the devout old shoemaker, and said, “I am 
glad that a man in a humble position like 
yours can be a Spirit-filled Christian.” “Don’t 
call this position humble, young man,” said 
the shoemaker. “O, pardon me!” said the 
preacher; “I did not mean to reflect upon what 
you do for a living.” “Never mind, never 
mind!” said the shoemaker, when he saw the 
young man’s embarrassment. “You didn’t 
hurt me, but I was afraid you would hurt the 
Lord Jesus Christ; for I believe that the making 


Tuer Vicrory or Power. 115 


of a shoe is just as holy a thing as the making 
ofa sermon. And I think that some day the 
Lord Jesus will take one of these pairs of shoes 
and hold them up in the light of the judgment 
throne that men and angels may see just what 
kind of shoes I made. And perhaps he will 
hold up one of your sermons. And, if it is then 
seen that I have made better shoes than you 
have made sermons, I shall have a higher place 
in the kingdom than you.” Whether Hiram 
Gough was literally right or not in his opinion 
may be a question, but the Spirit of God will 
ennoble and glorify any honorable vocation, 
and help us to do the best work. 

God is using the Spirit-filled people to-day. 
That is why we sometimes find him using the 
weak things and the foolish things in prefer- 
ence to the great and the wise. For the Spirit 
of God can more easily use a man who has 
little learning and culture, but who has become 
his temple, than he can use the learned and 
the cultured who depend upon their learning 
and culture for success. What the Spirit of 
God seeks most to-day is availability rather 
than ability. And when the Spirit’s power 
comes into a human life, then “a little one 
shall become a thousand, and a small one a 


116 Tue Victory Lire. 


strong nation.” Let God but have his own 
way in human hearts to-day, and he will raise 
up men like Moses and Elijah and Paul. 

When the Holy Spirit has his way there is 
always a forward movement. In many places 
the church has halted and lost her aggressive- 
ness. The Spirit has been grieved. The Pen- 
tecostal power is wanting. Yonder is a heavily 
loaded street-car going up a steep grade. Half 
way up it stops. There is a motion backward. 
The motorman has all he can do to keep it 
from running down hill. What is the matter? 
The trolley is off the wire. Connection has 
been broken. And it would seem as if many 
pastors are wholly occupied to keep the Church 
from going backward. They are working on 
the back brakes. The great need of many 
professing Christians is that the connections 
may be repaired so that the Holy Spirit, filling 
them with his power, may keep them moving 
steadily forward. 

But to know the victory of power: 

1. We must believe in the personality of the 
Holy Spirit. So many seem to think of the 
Spirit as a mere influence, like electricity or 
gravitation. But the Spirit of God is a living 
person, a divine person, the third person in the 
blessed Trinity, God the Holy Spirit. And 


Tuer Victory or Power. 117 


his presence and personality in the world to-day 
is just as real as was the presence and /person- 
ality of the Son of God. In the Acts of the 
Apostles he is everywhere recognized as the 
leader in all the affairs of the Church. 

2. We must have a real desire for his full- 
ness. No half-hearted desire will suffice. Christ 
will not give his Ascension Gift to the indiffer- 
ent. The ascended Lord did not keep that 
little group waiting in the upper room ten 
days because he was not ready to send the 
Comforter, but rather that they might come to 
desire this Gift above all things else, that 
Christ might be glorified in their lives. And 
we must have the same intensity of desire. 
Then God is ever ready to fulfill his promise. 
“Tf ye then being evil, know how to give good 
gifts unto your children: how much more shall 
your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to 
them that ask him?” 

3. We must be emptied of the spirit of the 
world. The Holy Spirit will never come in his 
fullness into a life where Christ can not have 
supremacy. When the Holy Spirit is not re- 
ceived in answer to fervent prayer, there is 
probably some worldly way, or worldly amuse- 
ment, or worldly ambition, that hinders his 
coming. In his “ Quiet Hour Talks,” Mr. 8. D. 


118 Tux Victory Lire. 


Gordon tells about a sleepy little town some- 
where in the mountains. The citizens ran a 
pipe up the hills to a lake of water. “As a 
result, the town enjoyed a bountiful supply of 
water the year round without being depend- 
ent upon the rainfall, which is very slight 
there. And the population increased, and the 
place had a regular Western boom. One morn- 
ing the housewives turned the water spigots, 
but no water came. There was some sputter- 
ing. There is apt to be noise when there is 
nothing else. The men climbed the hill. 
There was the lake full as ever. They exam- 
ined around the pipes as well as possible, but 
could find no break. Try as they might, they 
could find no cause for the stoppage. And as 
days grew into weeks, people commenced moy- 
ing away again, the grass grew in the streets, 
and the prosperous town was going back to its 
old sleepy condition when one day one of the 
town officials received a note. It was poorly 
written, with bad spelling and grammar, but 
he never cared less about writing and grammar 
than just then. It said in effect, ‘Ef you’ll 
jes’ pull the plug out of the pipe about eight 
inches from the top, you’ll get all the water 
you want.’ Up they started for the top of the 


Tue Victory or Power. 119 


hill, and dug into the pipe, and found the plug 
which some vicious tramp had inserted. Not 
a very big plug—just big enough to fill the 
pipe. Out came the plug; down came the 
water freely; by and by came back prosperity 
again.” A single questionable amusement, or 
an unconfessed sin, or any ambition that con- 
flicts with the interests of the Redeemer’s 
kingdom will become the “plug” that keeps 
us from the enjoyment of the fullness of the 
Spirit. 

4, We must remember that the Holy Spirit is 
given for service. When he took possession 
of the early Church, he began to work through 
them and by them in glorifying Jesus. Through 
Peter and John he healed the lame man. He 
made Stephen to triumph. He sent Philip to 
Samaria, and consecrated Paul and Barnabas 
missionaries. To speak of the Holy Spirit as 
a mere blessing sounds almost like blasphemy. 
He is the living, faithful, divine Leader, work- 
ing in and through the Church, convicting the 
world of sin, and always glorifying our as- 
cended Lord. And when he comes into our 
lives it is that he may give us power to get 
the victory over all sin, and to glorify Christ 
in ever-valiant service. 


120 Tur Victory Lire. 


CONCLUDING WORD. 


The battle now, but soon the final victory! 
The life of faith now, but soon the blessed 
vision of the Glorified! The cross now, but 
soon the crown! Above the unfolding clouds 
our glorious Lord shall soon appear. ‘“ Behold, 
he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall 
see him!” Again and again did he intreat 
watchfulness. He is surely coming again to 
receive us unto himself. And we shall see him 
and hear his “ Well done!” Soon every tear 
shall be wiped away, and every sadness dis- 
pelled, and every sorrow forgotten, and all 
earth’s woes exchanged for the triumph of the 
glorified. And soon these stammering tongues 
shall join in heaven’s coronation shout: 


“HattecvsAn! Tur Lorp Gop Omnrpeorent 
Reignetu!” 


“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from 
falling, and to present you faultless before the 
presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the 
only wise God our Savior, be glory and maj- 
esty, dominion and power, both now and ever! 
Amen.” 


DATE DUE 


DEMCO 38-297 


wi 


L£€22S2100 


alll mM 


